Part I
Alex Krycek—1998.
Alex Krycek—1998.
"Now that we're established," Walter Skinner said to the people sitting
around the large table. "We have to find a way to eliminate the invaders
globally. We can't be sure if anyone else has survived. But if we are to
live our selves, then we must take matters into our own hands and assume
that we are the only ones." He noted the pained expression that passed
briefly over Dana Scully's face. Her mother had not been heard from since
before the invasion. "Therefore, " Skinner said, "We need to come up with
a plan that can work here at home, then world wide." He took a sip of his
coffee and said "Mulder" as he sat.
Fox Mulder stood up and walked to the head of the table. "I have it
on good information that there is a large rebel ship hidden in Baltimore."
He glanced quickly at the three lone gunmen seated around the table. They
were of course, the source of his good information.
"What are you looking for?" Asked Kim, Skinners former secretary.
Mulder looked at her directly and replied, "I'm hoping to find either the
virus in its pure form or a mutated version of it. Anything that might help
us. You see..." He explained, "Scully and I know from experience, "
Scully blanched at the word experience. Mulder didn't notice but Skinner
did.
"That most of the aliens are connected to their mother ship by a large... er... umbilicus for lack of a better word. If we introduce a virus
of our own, say a derivative of the original cure, then I think we might
just have a real good shot at wiping them out. Maybe we will find the
original vaccine or maybe we will find something else to lead us to...
"
"You think those hostiles are going to have a substance that can kill
them all just laying around?" Asked Bill Waters, a former agent with the
FBI. He snorted his disbelief and then said skeptically, "Get real
Mulder!"
Mulder frowned at Waters briefly. "We had the small pox virus bottled up
and sitting at the CDC in Atlanta didn't we?" He said reasonably. "Maybe
they would keep the vaccine for the same reasons we hung onto the small
pox." He picked up his coffee mug that was full of water and drank.
"That's not the point anyway."
"What is the point?" Waters asked.
"My point is let's just go in and check it out. We might find something, we
might not, but at least it's a place to start."
Skinner stood as Mulder took his seat between Scully and Frohicke.
"I think we should send a team in. Unless anyone else has a better idea?"
He looked into the faces of the seated people one by one, he saw no
dissension so he said, "So were agreed. We send out a re-con squad." He
looked to Mulder, "Mulder, you'll lead. It's your command. Scully,
Waters and Davis will back you up." The other three agents mentioned nodded
their agreement.
In the old days, no one would have followed Mulder anywhere, let alone
listen to his orders, but it was the dawn of a new era and Mulder's talk of
Aliens amongst us had, in the end, turned out to be true.
"Good. Gear up and be at the main portal in one hour." Skinner instructed.
The people around the table stood and slowly filed out of the counsel room.
The people who were not involved in the mission would go back to their own
jobs that they performed in order to sustain life in the dark, damp
shelters. From there, they would inform the others in their own work
areas what was going on.
The Rebel Ship
Scully pocketed three vials of an amber liquid, hoping that she had
stolen the right stuff. Only tests would tell for sure though. She walked
past a wall of photographs, stopped, thought for a second and then went back
to look at the wall. She stood and studied several photographs that were
posted to the wall. They were of a human arm in what looked to be like
various stages of growth. She gave a little shiver at the thought.
Mulder came up behind her and said into her ear, "I think I've got
everything we need..."
His sudden appearance behind her made Scully start with fright. "Jesus
Mulder." She said in a high voice, covering her racing heart with her left
hand. "I think I just peed my pants. Don't sneak up on me while I'm
standing in an alien ship." She joked.
"Well it's a good thing were in bio-hazard suits then." Mulder quipped back
cheekily. Just as he finished his sentence, a loud scream, wracked with
pain and full of anguish echoed down the deserted hallway; stopping both of
the agents dead in their tracks. They spun their head in the direction that
the cries of pain had come from. The high pitched screams echoed
continuously.
"That's a human voice." Scully said. Concerned at what could be happening
to make a person scream in such a manner.
All of a sudden, all of the hair on Mulder's neck stood up and the skin on
his forearms raised with goose bumps. He recognized the voice. He
concentrated and quickly scanned the screaming man's thoughts. His
suspicions were confirmed. "Come on Scully, we've got to go! Those
screams belong to Alex! Hurry!" He implored as he ran out the door, not
giving Scully a chance to answer him.
"Alex?" She said to herself, "Alex who?" She pushed the question aside and
followed Mulder. Who was now standing next to Bill Waters just outside the
door in the hall. Agent Davis was not in the ship, but covering the main
entrance for them.
"MY GOD! What's going on?" Waters said to Mulder over the loud shrieks.
"Come on. Lets go in and get him." Was all Mulder said as he ran down the
deserted corridor toward theories.
"I'm with ya Mulder." Waters replied shakily and then ran after him.
Scully hesitated for only a second before following the men. She came to a
stand still behind them; her gun already pulled and cocked.
Both Waters and Scully stood silently, waiting to follow Mulder's lead
inside.
The screams were coming wave after wave from a behind a closed steel door.
The door had a small, porthole size window in it and Mulder quickly peered
through the thick, clear glass, saw what he needed to then pulled his head
aside before the lone alien in the lab, could discover him.
Scully wondered briefly why Krycek seemed unaffected by the airborne poison
but she pushed the thought aside for the time being while she watched
silently as her partner hurried over to Krycek's side. Scully was more
than a little shocked by Mulder's behavior toward the Russian killer.
"Alex." He said gently, his voice not betraying to Alex that he was
really frightened by all of the blood oozing from the thigh wound.
Scully frowned. "Mulder." She said not making a move toward the double
agent.
Mulder did not acknowledge that he had even heard Scully speak his name.
Krycek looked up into Mulder's face, his eyes were wide with pain and he
looked totally wrung out. "Mulder." He whispered weakly. "Is that really
you?"
"Yes Alex. It's me." Mulder replied. His gaze swept over the exhausted
man, and what he saw turned his stomach. Both of Alex's wrists and ankles
were raw and bleeding, made so by his struggles to escape the pain of the
torturous shape-shifter's laser.
"Good. Then you must be here to kill me. Please put me out of my misery
Mulder." He was on the verge of passing out. "Pl... please." He said
again, his voice completely worn out from screaming.
"I'm not here to kill you Krycek, I'm here to help you." Mulder said. The
familiar phrase rolling easily off of his tongue as he began to cut away the
restraints.
Alex smiled then, and Mulder stopped what he was doing to stare longingly at
the young Russian. He thought that he had never seen anything so sweet as
Krycek's smile at that moment. His dark green eyes peeked through his
veiled lids, as if keeping them open halfway was the best that he could do.
Mulder thought that under the circumstances, it probably was the best that
he could do .
"You'd be happier if you just kill me." Krycek said, then his eyes rolled
back into his head showing Mulder nothing but the whites. The dark fringe
of the lashes slowly lowered—reminding Mulder of a theatre curtain—and
Alex Krycek was mercifully rendered unconscious.
"Alex!" Mulder shouted slapping the double agent's cheek softly despite
knowing that he had no doubt passed out from the pain. He threw a quick
glance over his shoulder at Scully and was genuinely surprised to see that
she had not even started patching Krycek's leg, making the limp man ready
for transport. "Scully?" He said simply.
"Mulder. That's Alex Krycek on the table. Liar, murderer and betrayer of
men. Are you sure you want to do this?" She said, unsettled by Mulder's
attitude.
Now it was Mulder's turn to frown at his partner. "Yes!" He replied
adamantly. Still Scully made no motion to help Krycek. Frustrated by he
inactivity, he said to her, "Fine! I'll do it myself then." Then he
reached into one of the deep pockets on the outside of the bio-suit and
pulled out a small portable first-aid kit.
Waters, still watching the corridor hissed quietly, "Somebody hurry up and
do something, we got to get out of here before more spooks show up!"
Mulder grabbed a small plastic bottle of antiseptic, that held a single
dose, out of the kit and bit the top off of it. He spit the plastic stopper
aside and squeezed all of the clear liquid contents directly into the
bleeding wound.
Alex thrashed a bit and moaned, but otherwise he did not wake up.
As Mulder fumbled to find the right field dressing, Scully finally clucked
her tongue and said to Mulder just as frustrated with him as he had been
with her, "Fine!" She snatched the bandage from Mulder's grip and quickly
covered up the wound.
"Would you two hurry up over there." Waters said urgently. "I think E.T.
knows were home!" He followed up his comments by firing his silenced gun
twice. "Come on, let's go before it gets up!"
"Grab that nightie." Mulder said as he hoisted Krycek's naked form over the
back of his shoulders. Scully did as Mulder asked and snatched a plain
white hospital gown and a pair of matching pajama bottoms from a nearby
table. Waters started firing again as he stepped into the hall to hold off
the two Aliens who were approaching the lab. The three of them beat a hasty
retreat out of the ship, with Waters and Scully watching both Mulder's and
Krycek's back; much to Scully's chagrin.
FBI Bomb Shelter
Scully banged out the signal and the hidden steal door that led to the
bunker opened. The guard on duty stepped aside to admit the returning team.
Mulder pushed his way through and went straight to his private quarters with
the still unconscious Alex over his shoulders.
Mulder lay Krycek down on his double bed as gently as he could, but the
transitional jolt from firm shoulders to the soft bed made the patient
finally wake up. Krycek opened his eyes and groaned at the bright light,
and for a few seconds he thought that he had only dreamed that Mulder had
rescued him. That he really was not free, but still strapped down with his
leg amputated.
"Alex, can you hear me?" Mulder asked when he saw Krycek's eyes flutter
open. For a few seconds Krycek stared blankly at him. But once he had
spoken though, Mulder saw recognition register with the bloodshot and
emerald gaze.
Swallowing hard Alex answered with a raspy voice. "Yes."
Mulder audibly sighed his relief. "Good." He said.
Alex smiled weakly, he liked it when Mulder used his first name, though he
doubted that Mulder even realized that he was using it instead of 'Krycek'... "Yes." He answered honestly.
Mulder let go of Alex's arm and went into his tiny kitchen. He pulled a
bottle of cold water out from his small half fridge and padded back to the
bedroom. He opened the water up and put the plastic to Krycek's dry and
cracked lips. Alex drank down the refreshing liquid greedily, until
finally, Mulder pulled the bottle away and said, "That's enough... for
now. To answer your question, you've been out of it for just under
twenty-four hours."
Alex fell back against the soft pillows, "Where am I?" He asked, his thirst
still not completely slaked.
Picking up Alex's left hand again, Mulder replied, "Under the Hoover
Building, in the bowels of a nuclear bomb shelter that was built especially
for J. Edger. There is forty of us living down here. Forty-one now."
"Tried and failed." Krycek said, he knew that he must be sicker than he
thought, because now he could see that his saving angel Mulder was sitting
on the edge of the bed right next to him holding his hand lovingly. Not to
mention that the agent had a soft white glow outlining his form, making the
agents lithe body appear unearthly in Alex's glazed eyes.
Mulder squeezed his hand in a reassuring manner. "It's not your fault Alex.
One man alone is no match for an entire race of life forms. The Englishman
told me that it was you who brought him the cure for Scully, way back when
she was captured.
Alex laughed softly. "Ahhh, Fox..." He said as he raised his right
hand and gently cupped Mulder's face. "You always did try to see the best
in people." He let his hand drop. "But it was my fault. If I hadn't been
so duplicitous and traitorous in the past..." Suddenly he turned his
head to side, away from Mulder. He was unwilling to let the agent see the
single tear that had slipped out of the corner of his eye and was now
cascading down over his cheek. "...You might have believed me." He said
softly, finishing his sentence.
Mulder kissed the back of Krycek's smooth, new left hand softly. He had
seen the fat drop of saline escape and as much as he longed to reach out and
wipe it away for Alex, he resisted the impulse. "I believed you. Scully
and I went to Weikamp, but before I could help the rebel, he was taken and I
was mind-wiped. I had to be regressed to remember what I had seen."
Alex turned his head back, the tear was gone now leaving a small splat of
moisture on the soft cotton pillowcase. "You did?" He asked. His leg was
throbbing in time to his heartbeat but he ignored the pain. Mulder had
believed in him when it really counted and at the moment, that's all that
mattered to Alex.
"Yes. You were most convincing, especially after you kissed me." Mulder
leaned down and began to kiss Krycek gently on the lips. Uncaring that the
man laying prone before him was supposed to be his enemy. He had wanted
Alex Krycek from the very beginning and he knew that Alex had wanted him
too; the 'green agent' act aside.
Every time they had met in the past, Mulder had felt a spark of attraction
jolt through him like a lightening bolt. It was the same for Alex too, or
why else would a trained killer allow himself to be knocked around by a
fumbling FBI agent.
As Mulder continued to chastely kiss the younger man, he reached out
mentally and read what was inside of Alex's mind. Immediately he could
sense Krycek's remorse for past events and he could clearly feel Alex's
regret for not being able to stop the aliens' agenda. Then Mulder reached
in a little farther and for a split second, he experienced the excruciating
pain of the experiments that the aliens had performed on Alex. And even
deeper still, he felt Alex's long repressed, secret love for him, Fox Mulder
F.B.I.
"Yes." Came the husky reply. "That was nice."
"I want you to know Alex that everything that happened in the past, is just
that. The past. Ancient news now. Your slate is washed clean as far as
I'm concerned."
"But what about your father?"
"I know now that whatever you did, you were made too... that your
actions were not of your own free will. Correct?"
"Yes. But..."
Mulder shook his head. "No more Alex. I want to live in the present. I'm
tired of wasting time." He stared down at the younger man for a minute
before whispering softly, "I love you Alex. I always have, I always will.
I don't want to be your enemy anymore." It was harder for Mulder to say the
words than he thought it would be.
"I love... you too... Fox." Alex blinked his eyes a few times,
fighting off the emotional tears. But it was of no use, it had been a long
time since he had let himself feel anything except anger. It felt good to
be able to let the emotional baggage go, especially when the one person he
had ever dared to let in, was telling him that he was forgiven and loved.
Mulder smiled again, and using a Kleenex he mopped up the wetness on Alex's
prominent cheek bones. Slowly the tears dissipated.
"Oh god." Alex moaned. "I must be sicker than I thought to be lying here
and crying like a baby."
Mulder leaned down and kissed Alex again, this time he gently poked his
tongue into the pliant man's mouth, and Alex responded by giving Mulder a
feel of his tongue. "It's okay." Mulder said, when he sat up again. "I
kind of like the new sensitive you. But your right about one thing, you are
sick. I wonder where Scully is? She should be here by now." Mulder
glanced at his watch, he had been waiting for her to arrive for half an
hour.
"Here I am." Came the emotionless response from Scully, who stood in the
bedroom doorway.
Mulder let go of Alex's hand and turned around quickly to face his partner.
And the expression on Mulder's face made Scully think that she had just
walked in almost caught him doing something naughty.
"It's about time." He said. "Where have you been? He's really hot."
Mulder could not keep the anxiety from his voice. He heard a small giggle
and glanced down at Alex, who was laughing softly, about what, he didn't
know but Mulder could guess.
Scully frowned at Mulder but did not answer his question, because she had
been delayed because she was busy reporting Mulder's find to Skinner.
Then after that, she had taken her sweet time assembling an emergency tray
of supplies in order to mend Mulder's traitorous killer with.
Slowly drifting off, Alex asked Mulder sleepily, "Will you be here when I
wake up? We have a lot to talk about."
"I'll be here for you Alex." Mulder promised as the double agent's eyes
closed and he fell asleep.
Scully, finished picking up, stood by the bedroom door waiting for Mulder to
be done with Krycek. As she stood there, she wondered when Mulder had gone
from hissing out the name Krycek to saying gently, almost lovingly
Alex. Something was up between the two, that much she was positive of.
She was sure that she recognized the actions of a man who was infatuated.
"Mulder." She said when he had finally stood up, obviously satisfied with
Krycek's comfort.
"Yes." He replied.
"Let's go to the kitchen and get a coffee." She suggested.
With one last glance of longing over shoulder, Mulder reluctantly agreed
and shutting out the lights, he left Alex alone to sleep in the dark room.
After he closed the door behind himself, Mulder immediately went to the
kitchen. He filled the kettle with water and plugged it in to boil while
Scully measured out the amount of instant coffee she preferred into her mug
and did the same for Mulder. Once the coffee was made, they sat at the
small round table.
It was Mulder who finally broke the awkward silence between them by saying,
"Do you happen to know where my mom is?" He had phoned her while waiting
for the water to boil, but only got her answering machine. He thought that
she was off duty from working in the gardens today.
Scully sipped her coffee, knowing her partner well enough to know that he
was avoiding the pressing topic of Alex Krycek. However, she did happen to
know where Mulder's mother was, so she answered his question.
"How did you find out that she had gone? We've only been back for an hour?"
Mulder asked, a little worried that his mother was gone out on a mission.
Though it was not intended to be a dangerous one, it could still turn out to
be. Mulder shrugged his shoulders, his mother was a grown woman and could
come and go at will. He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Scully,
suddenly suspicious.
Now Mulder knew for sure that Scully's long delay wasn't in putting together
a first-aid tray, or handing off the amber vials of liquid they had found to
the Lone gunmen, no, she had spent most of her time reporting on him or
rather on Alex to Skinner.
Scully and Mulder stared at each other, caught in a stand-off. Finally it
was Scully who looked away first. She put the mug that she had been holding
down and tackled the subject that they were now both avoiding.
"I've touched his mind Scully." Mulder said, controlling his anger and his
voice. "He's not a traitor... anymore... he won't hurt me again. I
know that for a fact... And he won't betray the people living down
here." His anger dissipated, he could truly understand how Scully could
hold on to her outrage. After all, it was her sister Melissa who had been
killed and she was the one who had been abducted and experimented on. The
aliens had stolen her ovum from her body like raiders stealing the riches
from and Egyptian Tomb.
Scully studied the man sitting across from her for a few seconds more, but
gave up in trying to warn him against Krycek. Mulder was a big boy, he
would find out for himself that Krycek could not be trusted, regardless of
whether or not he had read his thoughts.
Mulder stood up and placed his mug in the sink. "No. I promised Alex I'd
be here when he woke up." His back was to her, so he didn't notice Scully's
eyebrows rise in surprise. "Listen,..." He said, turning around. "
Just show me the dose of the drug and I'll put it in his I.V."
Scully thought for a minute, then knowing that this battle was lost; there
was now way she could convince Mulder to Leave Krycek's side. She showed
him what to do then left him alone to sit vigil over a man that she had
thought—obviously wrongly—her partner had despised the most in the
world. Four Days Later
After eating breakfast together, Mulder left the vastly improving Alex
in search of Scully and the lone gunmen. He was interested to find out
about how their progress was going in reference to the amber filled vials
they had discovered—along with Krycek—in the alien ship.
Mulder was reluctant to leave Alex alone as they had been together
continuously for the last four full days. But with every passing sunrise,
the Russian's health got better and Mulder ran out of excuses for not
leaving him alone.
Mulder kissed his lover goodbye and reluctantly left the limping man behind
in the apartment, with assurances from Alex that he would be fine.
A few hours after Mulder had left him, Alex, tired of being cooped up found
the courage to open the front door and step into the cool dark corridor. He
looked left then right and saw not another living soul. But then, he knew
from talking with Mulder that the shelter was huge. With only forty-one
people inhabiting a shelter meant for hundreds, seeing another was highly
unlikely.
Skinner squatted down in front of Alex and grabbed him by the jaw, smiling
evilly when the Russian agent wince with pain, "That was for Dana's sister
and Mulder's father." He hissed.
Mulder and Scully rounded the corner and had to come to a sudden stop
because their path was blocked by Skinner and Krycek. "What the hell is
going on?" Mulder asked Skinner angrily as he ran to Alex's side.
Skinner stood up and backed away from Krycek, who was still defiantly
staring his former boss down. Though he could only glare with one large
green eye, Alex still managed to look menacing. However, with his mouth and
nose still bleeding he did not paint too intimidating of a picture.
Scully's went to Skinner and putting a delicate hand on his large forearm.
She asked him gently, "What's going on Walter?"
Mulder pulled Alex up to his feet and gently touched his bleeding nostril.
Alex flinched slightly but let Mulder touch his nose. "Are you all right
Alex?" he asked.
"I'm all right." Alex replied emotionlessly. He pulled a Kleenex out from
his front pocket and began to dab at his nose gingerly, frowning at the
bright red blood that was rapidly soaking into the small tissue.
Mulder stared at Scully and Skinner. The fact that they stood so close and
that Scully had called Skinner Walter did not slip by him unnoticed.
"Judging by the colour of his blood, We can safely deduce that he's not a
shape-shifter here to kill us..." Skinner spit out.
"I could have told you that!" Mulder yelled angrily at Skinner. He moved
his body over a pace and stood directly in front of Alex, as if to protect
him from further abuse.
"He could be a plant Mulder." Scully said softly. "They could have
brainwashed him, he might not even know it himself. Have you thought of
that?"
"No, but you obviously have." He said to Scully, barely controlling his
anger when talking to her.
Alex in the meantime had pulled off his T-shirt and used it to further clean
himself up. He tossed the blood soaked tissue to the floor. It might have
looked like he wasn't paying attention to the trio but he was listening
intently to every word.
Mulder continued to glare at Scully, unwilling to believe she would take
Skinner's side over his. But he studied their body language for a second
and then thought to himself,
It was at that point that Alex stepped out from behind Mulder, his bloody
shirt was dangling from his hand like a rag. He put a hand on Mulder's
shoulder and said in a monotone, "It doesn't matter what you say to them
Fox. They'll never believe anything except the worst about me. I'll never
measure up."
"Oh yeah. Saint Krycek." Skinner mumbled with narrowed eyes.
Mulder ignored Skinner's biting remark.
Scully sighed heavily. She stared at Alex's thin arm and noted the scaring
where it had been cut off, and grown back again. Logically, she knew that
he had been through a horrific, painful ordeal, but she could not bring
herself to forgive his sins. Scully shook her head softly, "Have you
touched on his thoughts now that he's not in a drug haze?" She asked
Mulder.
Alex looked at Mulder quizzically, he didn't know what Scully meant by that
comment. He did not however, ask Mulder, he would wait for later to find
out.
"Yes I have and there's no deception in them, whatsoever." Mulder stated
emphatically.
Skinner looked between both men, and then came to a decision. "Fine. He
can stay Mulder. But he's your responsibility. Anything he does is on
you!" He turned to Scully and asked her. "Do you have a minute Dana?"
"Mulder are we done?" She asked her partner.
The two of them had been discussing some of the theories the lone gunmen had
up forth about their immunity to the oil before coming across Skinner and
Krycek in the corridor.
"Yeah." Mulder said, a hint of sadness creeping into his tone now. "Were
done." Part II
"Destiny. Fate. How to throw a curve ball.
Mulder wrung out the face cloth and hung it up on a small hook under the sink
to dry. The water, once hot and clear was now lukewarm and stained red. He
scrutinized Alex's bruised face for a second, then said to the reticent man,
"Your eye should be opened again by the morning."
Alex, sitting on the small kitchen counter, gave the man before him a tiny
smile, though it hurt him to do so. "Thanks." He said, gingerly touching at
his split and swollen bottom lip.
"Alex..." Mulder started, he hesitated for a beat then continued, "...I'm
sorry about Skinner and Scully."
"Don't be." Alex said. "I deserve everything I get and more." His voice was
heavy with regret. "I've destroyed a lot of peoples lives... especially yours.
If I've learned one thing Fox, it's that even while trying to save the planet
and the people with it, there is no such thing as the greater good." Alex
shrugged his shoulders, pretending as if it really didn't matter.
Mulder stepped in-between Alex's open legs and rested one hand on his knee and
with the other he tilted Alex's lightly whiskered chin up.
The slightly sad Russian responded to Mulder by opening his mouth and accepting
his eager tongue. Alex's lip had opened up again and both men could taste the
distinct tang of blood in their mouths. However, Alex didn't care that he
was bleeding again, all that he was concerned about was Mulder, and what he was
cleverly doing with the tip of his tongue.
Mulder loosened himself from Alex's tight embrace just enough so that he could
lean back and see into Alex's large, expressive eyes. Replying huskily, he
said, "Oh Alex... Believe it. I want you all right." He took Alex's right
hand and pushed it into his groin, directly onto his burgeoning erection.
"Being near you makes me like this." He said. "Can you feel how much I want
you?"
Alex hung his head back and closed his eyes. "I can feel it Fox... but I still
can't believe it, especially with the way I look right now."
"You're beautiful Alex." Whispered Mulder. "Your face has been engraved into
my memory. Without even knowing it, you've fulfilled all of my masturbatory
fantasies, for years. Only you."
Alex cracked his eye open and gave Mulder a smoldering gaze, or the best that
he could with one eye swollen shut. "You're all I've thought about since I met
you that day in the office bull pen. And when I kissed you for the first
time... In your apartment,..." Alex's hand was now kneading Mulder's
considerable erection through his heavy canvass pants. "...I wanted so badly
to grab your face, shove my tongue down your throat and lick your tonsils. But
I thought you'd bite it off if I tried."
Mulder grinned at Alex's declaration. "I wish you'd tried it that night. Mind
you, I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have bit you." He laughed softly.
"Come on Alex... enough small talk, let's go to the bedroom."
Once there, Mulder grabbed the hem of his shirt and was about to pull it off.
But before he could, Alex, already shirtless himself stopped him.
"No. Let me. Please." He said, his voice low and husky. Slightly nervous,
Alex reached out with two trembling hands and pulled the plain T-shirt off,
tossing it carelessly aside. Now both men were bare chested and barefoot,
wearing only pants. Staring directly at Mulder, Alex undid the top button of
his utilitarian trousers.
Mulder looked down and watched Alex's movements closely and inhaled sharply
when the Russian, slowly, one tooth at a time, lowered his zipper. He brought
his gaze back up and saw that Alex was still watching him attentively.
"I've fantasized about undressing you for so long..." Alex said, as he used
his right hand to quickly pop open all four buttons to his own jeans. "...And
now that I have two good arms again..." He stopped talking mid sentence and
searched Mulder's eyes, as if by visual examination he would be able to see
what was going on inside the former F.B.I. agents' head.
"What?" Mulder, smiling, finally asked.
"I'm wondering what you see in me. Especially now, with my face having gone
three losing rounds with Skinner. You can't possibly find me attractive...
now... I mean."
"Oh Alex." Mulder sighed as he pushed his pants down to his ankles and stepped
out of them. He shoved Alex's pants down too; who also stepped out of his
pants and kicked them away.
Alex tilted his head to the side, giving Mulder clear access to his neck.
Mulder kissed his way down the side and when he reached the sensitive junction
between shoulder and neck, Alex gave a soft groan pleased that Mulder was
leaving his mark behind. "I do love you Fox. Only you. I've never given my
real feelings to anyone before. Ever. Ahhhh. Jesus! Do that again." He
cried.
Mulder grinned and then nipped harder at the smooth bit of skin at the back
of his neck, near the ear. Extremely pleased when his lover moaned and arched
his back like a stretching cat. He had just found his first sensitive spot of
what he hoped would be many on Alex. And Mulder looked forward to finding
each and every one of his lover's erogenous zones. To him, Alex was like
un-chartered territory, and he could not wait to go exploring. Mulder stopped
suckling Alex, causing the Russian to whimper out a small protest. He licked
several dark purple marks, evidence of his handy work, one more time then sat
up straighter and then asked Alex, "What is it you see in me?"
Alex opened his good eye, looked up at Mulder and said honestly, "You were the
quintessential underdog Fox. And I cheered every time the council of old men
failed to stomp you down."
Mulder was truly amazed by Alex's clear grasp of what had been going through
his mind at the time.
"I deserved what you gave me that's why I took your shit without fighting back.
I wanted to be punished... I wanted you to hurt me..." Alex wrapped his arms
around Mulder's neck and pulled his former partner down for another kiss.
Their tongues immediately met and blended.
"Yes." Mulder breathed between kisses, "Later... Much later..." He sucked on
Alex's tongue like it was a cock and spoke no more.
After several minutes of deep kissing, Mulder sat up and said, "Roll over and
I'll rub your back for you." He was very conscious of the fact that Alex
wanted to make love just as badly as he did, but he knew that the younger man
must still be extremely sore. So Mulder decided that it would be better if
they just took their time, after all they had no where they had to be.
Alex complied readily to Mulder's request and flipped over gracefully, resting
his head on his arms. With his eyes closed he murmured softly, "Mmmm, I
haven't had a back rub in years."
Mulder stared at the stark white flesh on his lover's back for a few seconds
before reaching out and running his hands over Alex's broad shoulders. Other
than a few dime size scars across the blades, Krycek's back was perfectly
pristine in its creamy whiteness. He had no blotches, freckles or even a small
pimple marring the beautiful pale canvass.
Alex "mmmed" again and asked, "Do you like what you see?"
"Oh yeah. Do I ever." Replied Mulder huskily, his cock leaking pre-cum
profusely. He moved his body up Alex's torso just enough so that his erection
was playfully poking at his exposed, tight hole.
"Yes." Replied Alex simply.
While still stretched over Alex's back, Mulder held onto his member and eased
the plum-sized head of his cock inside of Alex slowly.
Once he had breached Alex's incredible tightness and was fully seated inside,
Mulder stopped moving, giving the younger man time to adjust to his width.
"That feels sooo good." Alex sighed breathily.
Mulder smiled and used both hands in order to pull Alex onto his hands and
knees, recognizing that a year ago this position would have been impossible for
the Russian.
Alex moaned and pushed back, trying to sink Mulder's cock inside his body
farther.
Mulder stroked over Alex's cock in time with his not so gentle thrusts; making
the Russian moan every time his gland was bumped by the head of his cock.
The younger man muttered in Russian and bucked with pleasure, in return
building up Mulder's own sexual frenzy.
Still thrusting and stroking, Mulder stretched out over Alex's back once more
and began to gently kiss and bite him all over his shoulders; kissing each and
every one of the scars marring the otherwise perfect flesh. His balls clenched
at the same time as Alex' s ass muscles cinched tightly around him with orgasm,
and both men let the waves of gratification surge through them.
Satisfied and sated, Alex collapsed flat onto his belly and Mulder went down
with him.
Mulder lay on him for another few seconds before finally releasing the marked
bit of skin and rolling over to his back, beside Alex. He ran the tips of his
fingers softly over the innocently sexy, small of Alex's back.
"I'm too heavy for you." Replied Mulder practically, reaching over his prone
lover for a hand towel in which to clean them up with.
"Mmmm. That massage felt great." Alex said rolling to his side too; sleepy
now. He briefly wondered why sex was such a great sleeping pill, but decided
to ask Mulder later...
Mulder spooned in behind Alex and ran his index finger over one of the scars.
"Where did you get these?" he asked.
Half way to falling asleep, Alex replied, "When I was 12 I ran away from the
orphanage. When they brought me back, I was beaten with a cane as a
punishment. They made sure that I served as an example to the other kids who
might have big ideas about getting away too."
Mulder kissed his lovers cheek and cuddled in even closer to Alex. "I'm
sorry." He said, and he meant it.
"It's not your fault Fox."
"No one ever tried to adopt you?"
"It wasn't that kind of place. Oh, the sign out front said 'orphanage', but
childless couples weren't welcome. Only consortium fathers, scientists and...
Well it doesn't matter anymore anyway." Alex yawned again and reached behind
to pat Fox's cheek softly. "The orphanage was a lifetime ago. I'm going to
nap for a bit... Stay and sleep with me?" He reached out and turned off the
small bedside lamp, blanketing them in darkness.
"I'll stay." Mulder said pulling up the blankets. He kissed Alex's whisker
stubbled cheek, but did not close his eyes, instead he stared out into the
black room, trying to deal with his own remorse and guilt. Because he had
just touched on Alex's thoughts even though he had promised the younger that he
wouldn't do it again.
CGB Spender crushed his cigarette out into an ashtray that was made from
clay and pressed into the shape of a small child's hand print. "What do you
think Bill?" He asked, petting the pouting Alex's head like he was a prized
puppy.
Bill Mulder squatted down in front of Alex and said to CGB while studying the
small boy. "I think he looks like his mother." As Mr. Mulder stared intently
into Alex's large eyes, a frown creased his mouth downwards.
Spender pulled Alex close to him and the little boy stiffened up. He didn't
like either of the men.
"But he resembles his father too. Hmm?" Spender smiled cruelly, "He reminds
me of the little Fox, it's in the eyes."
Mulder stood up and glared at Spender. "You stay the hell away from Fox!" He
said, noticing how closely his co-worker held the young boy to his body.
Alex thought the man who stank of smoke was telling the other man—a man who
he had never seen before—that he looked like a fox. He didn't understand
their English words very well—even though he was learning them—so he
thought that he might be mistaken about the fox comment. The one thing that he
did understand however, was what the smoking man wanted by holding him so close
and touching him. Alex knew, that the man who smoked would seek his
satisfaction from one of the older girls, or boys, just like he always did.
"Excuse me. Sirs?" A woman's soft voice said, her English heavily accent by
her natural inclination to speak Russian. "Alex needs to attend his weapons
and munitions lessons now." She reached out and took the small boy's hand and
led him away.
"OH FUCK!" Mulder thought to himself.
Alex murmured noisily in his sleep and rolled away from Mulder's warmth. He
always liked to start out cuddling while trying to fall asleep, but once he was
out, his subconscious took over and invariably pulled his body away from all
obstacles.
Mulder absently rubbed at Alex's back—which was still facing toward him—and
wondered why Spender and his father were in Russia, in particular, the same
Russian orphanage that Alex was housed in. Both his father and CGB were
younger, much younger in Alex's buried memory. But he had recognized the men
easily anyway; especially his own father. Obviously his dad had been involved
with Spender long before Samantha had been taken. Four years in fact, but most
likely even longer than even that.
Alex whined in his sleep, and Mulder immediately reached in and saw that his
lover was dreaming about running away. Only Alex was a grown man now and was
charging through a barren field, but he could not reach the other side of the
field, no matter how hard he ran. The unknown and unseen entity following him,
was scaring the running man.
"Here he his!" Announced a worker for the orphanage in broken English. The
large man, in his twenties, dropped Alex to the floor about six feet away, in
front of the director of the orphanage. The Director was sitting in a large
wing-back chair near a fire, and seated next to him, in a companion chair was
CGB Spender.
Alex grunted from the force of the blow but he stubbornly did not cry out. He
glared up insolently at the man who had struck him.
"You little cur!" The director shouted in Russian at the boy; angry that he
could not get a reaction from him. "You dare to run from the centre!"
Alex raised his hand and dabbed at the droplets of blood that had leaked from
the corner of his mouth. He glanced at the red liquid on his fingertips, then
slowly looked up at the director. With eyes full of hatred he said defiantly
in Russian, "I didn't run from the centre. I ran from you!" He hawked a
mouth full of thick bloody spit at the director's feet, succeeding in hitting
one of the man's expensive leather shoes.
The middle-aged Russian was livid. He stammered out, "How DARE YOU!..."
Then he screamed, "Scut!" and emphasized his anger by slapping Alex in the
face again, this time succeeding in knocking the willowy boy over.
CGB couldn't help but smile at Alex's independent spirit and his strong will.
He stood up and stopped the director from striking Alex again. "Sit." He
commanded the angry man evenly. Who did as he was instructed.
The worker hauled Alex to his knees again and this time the boy shot his
hate-filled looks at Spender, who squatted down in front of him. "Why do you
run from your 'protector'?" Spender asked, reaching out to wipe away some
blood that had spilled from the boy's nostril.
Alex recoiled backwards, avoiding Spender's touch. "I run..." He said in
perfect, unaccented american english, "...because I"m tired of having him..."
he jerked his head in the direction of the seated director, "...rutting with
me like an animal in my bed night after night."
Spender narrowed his gaze. He stood up and pulling out a cigarette, he lit it.
The boy unnerved him for some reason and his hands shook slightly. "Comrade
Linovich won't be bothering you anymore. I promise." He said and looking
down, the older man exhaled his noxious smoke directly into Alex's face.
Alex, not afraid of this man either, coughed exaggeratedly and fanned the smoke
away with one hand. "That promise will only last until your gone back to
America, Yankee dog..."
Spender struck out quickly, like a snake striking a mongoose, and grabbed
Alex's throat tightly within his large fist. He squeezed, momentarily cutting
off the boy's air then easing up so the 12-year-old would not asphyxiate.
"Don't you ever..." he said tightly, between clenched teeth, "...talk back
to me."
Alex, though in a considerable amount pain, smiled very sweetly up at the
smoker and said, "I'm still a little bit too young for your taste though eh?
But in two years, when my body has changed some more and I've grown a bit...
then I'll be perfect for you, right? I know you. Men like you are all the
same." He smiled another sweet smile.
CGB pulled the boy's thick hair harder and said, "Your insolence is only
digging you a deeper hole in which to bury yourself in Alex." He shook the
boys' head to stress his anger.
Blinking up at Spender, Alex's green eyes were magnified larger because they
were watering. He said cheekily, "I know when you leave this room today you
will seek out a boy who has green eyes and dark hair, like Bill Mulder's son.
Or will you go for a girl with brown hair and big brown eyes, just like his
daughter..."
"Shut up!" Spender thundered.
Alex ignored the smoking man and talked on, "You're a joke! You covet Bill
Mulder's wife and you want to posses his children and you think no one can see
it." Alex laughed cruelly at the American.
It was hard for Spender to believe that the boy on his knees before him was
just twelve years old.
"You can't have either of those things so you come here to Russia and pick
teenagers who look like his kids; pale imitations who cannot say no to you.
You take pleasure in controlling the children and in two more years it will be
me who reminds me of Mulder's son. " Alex scowled, then broke into another
angelic smile. "Director Linovich talks while fucks." He said.
Spender roared with anger and slapped Alex hard, leaving his own hand print on
the boy's beautiful face. He let go of Alex's hair and thrust the boy away
from himself, embarrassed that a twelve-year-old had managed to get under his
skin so easily and irritate him.
Alex laughed at the older man, pleased with himself that he had at least,
gotten the better of the two grown men. He may have won the war of words but
he knew that his punishment for doing so would be meted out severely. He no
longer cared anymore...
Angry at himself, Spender lit another cigarette and said calmly to the worker
who had hauled Alex up to his feet. "Take the cane to him. I want Alexander
made an example of. Let the others know that runaways won't be tolerated."
As the large worker dragged Alex away, Spender called out, "He attends his
physical training and all his other lessons tomorrow, as usual. No mercy."
"Fuck you—old man! You'll never break me. I'll never yield to you or any of
your cronies..." Alex turned his head toward Spender and spit a mouthful of
blood at the man. But he was too far away to actually hit him with it.
Mulder wiped away a tear of anger. All of those times that he had knocked Alex
around, called him names and generally treated him like shit whenever possible.
He had no idea that Alex had been raised to take abuse, or to kill at will;
whichever was called for in any given situation. Mulder knew now that despite
a young boys rebellious declaration of 'You'll never break me<' they had
of course, done just that. And the ones who worked on breaking his spirit
along with his will to live had taken great pleasure in doing so. He could
genuinely understand now how and why Alex had done the syndicate's bidding; he
had been raised specifically for the purpose. Mulder let the last vestiges of
any reservations in loving Alex Krycek go.
Mulder pulled Alex close to him and cuddled in behind the still sleeping man.
He kissed Alex's neck and whispered into his lover's ear, "I'm sorry Alex... so
sorry." Then he closed his eyes and tried to get a few hours sleep.
"It's all going to hell."
12 Days Later
"Mom!" Exclaimed Mulder, smiling as he pulled the door open wider. "Come in."
"Sure Fox. That would be nice."
Mulder bustled around the kitchen, and when enough coffee had dripped through
the machine he poured them each a cup. He sat down beside his mother and
asked her conversationally. "How come you were gone so long?"
Teena Mulder smiled "You know how these forays can be. We were having plenty
of success in finding the things that we needed for the gardens. So we
decided to keep with it." She smiled again then pulled her son into a hug.
"I'm sorry if I worried you Fox. But it was really very quiet up there. I
promise." She let go and studied her handsome son. She was amazed at how much
he looked like his father, the hazel-green eyes were definitely Bill's as well
as the deep brown hair.
"It's okay Mom. I know you had lots' to do." Pouring some cream into his cup
he said, "I have something I want to talk to you about, but first, tell me all
about your trip. What did you find?..."
"Fox." Called Alex as he elbowed the door shut. He could hear his lover's
voice coming from the kitchen so he smiled to himself and carrying his canvass
shopping bag into the kitchen he said while walking, "Kelly at the green
house told me your mother's home. She gave me some strawberries to serve with
coffee for when she..." He cut off his sentence when he rounded the corner
and saw that Mulder's mother was already at the apartment visiting.
"Hi yourself." Replied Mulder, unable to stop himself from beaming back his
Russian lover. He stood up and went over to where Alex was standing.
"Whatchyagot?" He asked, curiously peeking into the top of the bag.
"Kelly from the fruit beds gave me some strawberries to have with coffee for
when your mom came by to visit. But I see I'm too late." He bent his head
and looked into the bag too.
"I think she gave them to you under the guise of something sweet for my
mother." Mulder looked directly at Alex and raised an eyebrow, playfully.
"You probably flirted shamelessly with her just to get the berries in the first
place." He took the bag from Alex and set it on the counter. Still smirking
when Alex retorted "Me. Flirt to get what I want?" He pretended to sound
surprised by the notion.
Suddenly remembering where he was and who was in the room with him, Fox turned
to his mother and said, "Mom this is Alex, Alex this is my mom." The smile
quickly left his face when he saw the expression on her face. His Mother had
been uncharacteristically quiet while he and Alex had been bantering back and
forth. And now Mulder stood and stared at his mother, shocked. He could not
believe the hate-filled glare she was shooting at Alex.
Alex, who had been smiling too and initially had stretched his hand out in
order to shake hers. But he lowered it slowly when he realized that Mrs.
Mulder was not impressed at all to be meeting him. In fact, if looks could
kill, he thought that he would have been dead twice over already.
"Mom?" Mulder said, astonished by her rude behavior. "Mom!" He said again,
this time more firmly.
Finally Mrs. Mulder pulled her glaring brown eyes away from Alex and looked at
her son.
"What's the matter?" He asked her.
Teena Mulder turned back to Alex and studied his eyes, but she spoke to her
son. "Fox, there's no need to introduce us..." She said. "I know who this
is." She said vehemently.
"Oh Shit!" Thought Alex.
Teena stood up and back away from the table, looking back and forth between
the two men. "I know Natalia Krycek's bastard son when I see him!" She spit
the words out like they were burning the insides of her mouth.
"Mother!" Mulder cried horrified. Knowing full well where Alex had been
raised and in what conditions. "What are you talking about?" He asked.
As for Alex, he simply stood there and stared at Mrs. Mulder stunned. How
could she possibly know his mother? He himself had only known her name, but
had never even seen a photo of his mother. And as for his father, Alex had no
idea who it was, even to this day.
Mrs. Mulder rubbed at her temples, she could feel a migraine coming on.
"Alexander Nicholas Petr Krycek." She said, "Named for his three Russian
uncles; his mother's brothers. Born on August 24, 1962 in the City of New
York."
Just from reading the expression on his lover's face, Mulder knew that Alex had
never heard about any Russian uncles before and he didn't need to touch inside
the other man's mind to fathom that.
Mrs. Mulder continued to rattle off the facts. "Mother: Natalia Elena
Krycek. Father: William Mulder." She could barely say 'William Mulder' and
it came out as a half croak.
Both Alex and Mulder said "What?" At the same time. Mulder shook his head,
"Mom, I don't understand. What are you playing at?"
She turned to Mulder, "Natalia Krycek worked in the state department with your
father. She was his personal secretary and they had an affair and Bill had
the audacity to think that it was some big secret. But a woman always knows.
We had just celebrated your first birthday a few months earlier and when I
found out I confronted your father. He swore to me on his life that it was
over. Then later on, when I was carrying Samantha, I found out that not only
did Bill lie to me and not leave that Russian whore..."
Mulder winced at Alex's mother being referred to as a whore. He was really
surprised that his mother would even use such defaming language.
"...but he also sired a child with her. That child is you Mr. Krycek." She
swept her eyes up and down him. "My god you look so much like her that I knew
who you were the instant I laid eyes on you. The shape of your eyes and your
facial features,... is all Natalia. Yet the colour of them and your brown
hair clearly comes from Bill. Your mother was blonde." She shook her head
and her mouth formed a thin line of disapproval for the man.
Alex continued to stare at Mrs. Mulder. His eyes were wide with surprise and
Mulder could see the troubled emotions hiding behind them; confusion and
bitterness.
Teena swallowed hard. "Before Samantha was born, you were two I suppose Mr.
Krycek," She said coldly, "...I gave Bill an ultimatum," She turned and
spoke to her son. "I told him it was me—his faithful wife, loving son and
unborn child or that tart and her bastard boy. Your father chose me and you
and Samantha." She sounded almost triumphant to Mulder ears, "Natalia
committed suicide after Bill finally called it quits with her. Carl Spender
stepped in and sent him,..." she indicated with her head in Alex's direction,
"Back to Russia where he belonged so I wouldn't have to be reminded of Bills
indiscretions"
Shaking his head, Mulder was trying to absorb everything that had been said.
"You mean all these years, while I'm pining away for my missing sister,
wondering about family... I had a brother out there the whole time and no
one..." His voice began to rise with his ire, "... bothered telling me about
it! How dare you!" He was disgusted with both his late father and his mother.
Mrs. Mulder stepped up to her son and slapped him hard across the face. "Don't
you ever put him," meaning Alex, "...and you in the same sentence as the
word brother... Biologically he is your half brother. No more..." Her anger
just as apparent as her sons'.
Mulder raised his hand and touched the slap mark left by his mother; his flesh
hot under his palm.
"I will never accept this... man... into my life Fox. Just looking at him
makes me sick to my stomach. He represents all that was wrong with my
marriage. Because of his mother and him, my family was almost torn apart. We
used to be happy, especially after Samantha was born. Until she disappeared
and there no longer seemed to be a point in going on." Teena pointed Alex,
"His mother was the downfall of my husband, my marriage and my home, and I
want nothing to do with him!"
"Mother, don't say that. Listen, you have no idea what's going on here.
Please. Let me explain a few things about Alex,."
"No Fox. It's him or it's me, but there isn't room for both of us. It's your
decision." She turned away and brushing by Krycek, she ran out of the
apartment.
Alex stood there feeling like he had just been kicked in the guts. Old wounds
and emotions from his life in the orphanage bubbled to the surface. He had no
knowledge what-so-ever about anything Mrs. Mulder had spouted. And it wasn't
fair, in his opinion.
"So did you know about dad all along... Krycek?" Mulder asked, feeling
absolutely nauseous. For a minute there, he wondered if Alex might not be a
plant after all and his memories—the one's he had been reading without
permission—were planted and false after all.
Horrified by Mulder's accusation, Alex said emotionally, "No. God no." His
voice broke, but he shed no tears. "I had no idea we were... were...
brothers." He took a step toward Mulder, who took a step back.
"No! Don't... don't touch me." Hissed Mulder. His stomach was in turmoil
and it kept rolling over and over.
All that he kept replaying through his mind was that for years he had been in
love with his own brother and for two weeks, he had been intimate with him.
Alex stood there, staring at an invisible spot on the floor. More confused
and hurt now than he had ever been in the past. It had crushed him when
Mulder's beloved mother had called him a 'bastard' born to a'
whore' among other things. The put downs had hurt him, but he was used to
those and finding out that the only person he would ever love was in the same
DNA group as he had also thrown him for a loop.
Scully, startled by Krycek's sudden appearance at the door, stared after the
rushing man for a minute, wondering what was going on. Then she shrugged her
shoulders and went into the apartment, accepting the wide-open door as an
invitation to enter the premises. She walked into the kitchen looking for
Mulder and seeing that he wasn't there she turned toward the small hallway.
She stopped and stood where she was when she her former partner's voice.
"Listen Alex, " Mulder said stepping out of the bathroom, wiping his face with
a small towel. "We'll work things out... somehow... one way or an..." He
stopped speaking mid syllable when he saw Scully standing there. "Where's
Alex?" He asked her.
"He left. I passed him as I was coming in." Scully said "What's going on?"
Mulder molded his face into an expressionless mask and said casually, "We had
an argument." Pleased that he had managed to make his tone of voice even and
nonchalant.
Scully looked around the room. "About what?" She asked just as casually as
Mulder had been. Although now she was really curious to know what was going
on now.
"Him. Me. Us." Mulder replied dejectedly as he flopped himself down on the
couch and buried his face in his hands. Every thing was so fucked up now.
Mulder didn't care who knew about him and Alex, he just didn't have the
strength to keep their affair a secret.
Suddenly, it hit Scully and all the little clues that she had seen lately added
up to one big solution. She couldn't believe that she had not guessed
earlier. Especially when Krycek was still recuperating from the infection
early on, Mulder's reluctance to leave Krycek's bedside had been a gigantic
hint.
Mulder snapped his head up. "Yes." He said firmly, not ashamed. "And you
don't have to say his name like it leaves a bad taste in your mouth." He
stated, his tone becoming a little harder.
"JESUS CHRIST!" Scully said as she jumped up and started pacing the tiny
sitting room.
"What?" Mulder said sarcastically. "Freaked that I'm gay Scully?"
She stopped pacing and glared at him. "No. I assumed something was up a long
time ago. But Krycek?" She stared at him. Amazed that she even had to say
it. "Krycek is... he's..." She could hardly decide on which of the many
slanderous euphemisms that came to mind while describing Krycek, so she settled
for, "... he's street trash Mulder. A cockroach who did the bidding of the
destroyer of mankind. He's toxic. The sooner you come to your senses and
realize that... the better. He's done nothing but cause you pain and misery.
And I can't even swallow the fact that you would consider sleeping with him,
let alone... love him."
Mulder stood up too, he had never felt angrier at Scully than he did right now.
How could she say such things about Alex? Especially when she had no clue as
to what was in the Russians' head or his heart. Mulder knew the real Alex
Krycek, and the true reasons why he had been the errand boy to a group of old,
evil men.
Not one to be intimidated, she said simply "Oh?" Thinking that it was very
much her business since it was the accomplice in her only sisters murder that
Mulder was screwing.
"Yes. Considering how long you've been sleeping with our fearless leader
Dana." Mulder stated.
Scully quickly closed the distance between, and for the second time in a half
an hour, Mulder had his face slapped. He just stood there staring at her and
she at him.
Then Scully whirled around and walked out, slamming the door loudly behind
herself. She leaned against the closed door for a moment and collected her
self. She was stunned by Mulder's confession and equally surprised that he
had known about her and Walter; both of them had thought that they were
extremely discreet.
As soon as his former partner had left the room Mulder plopped back down onto
the couch and buried his head in his hands again. He couldn't believe how
shitty his day was going. First his mother, then Alex and now Scully had all
walked out on him.
He could feel the younger man's anguish over the situation acutely, along with
his despair. Mulder could also feel that Alex still loved him deeply and
completely; not in just a brotherly way either. But he believed that Mulder no
longer wanted him around.
Shaking his head sadly, Mulder left Alex with his own private misery only
because he himself felt the same or close to it. He also knew that Alex would
not appreciate the intrusion—again.
"Hi Mr. Mulder." The effervescent blond replied. "Is Alex home?" She blushed
slightly when she spoke Alex's name.
"No, I'm sorry Alex isn't here right now." Mulder couldn't help but smile,
for real this time, at her. Her crush on Alex was obvious if not sweet.
Mulder surmised that his lover probably had no idea that the pretty 22 year old
had feelings other than friendship on her mind for him.
Her disappointment was apparent. "Oh okay." She said. "I'll try again
later." Though she really didn't have time later to come back.
"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked.
Kelly brightened a bit and said, "Well Alex was in the garden this morning and
begged me for some strawberries, even though they're being rationed right
now..."
Mulder could see that she was replaying the conversation in her mind, "... he
said he wanted the berries for you and Mrs. M. That they were your
favorites."
Mulder hadn't realized that Alex knew that about him.
"Well... I finally gave in and let him have some extra berries and then he
asked me if the raspberries were ready yet because they were his `faves..."
Mulder didn't know that either. Anxious to go to Alex, he fidgeted with the
door knob.
Kelly saw his actions and realizing his impatience, she hurried her story
along, "... Well after he left I checked the raspberry canes and managed to
pick a basket for him..." She presented the small green palm size basket to
Mulder and blushing again she said, "I thought he might want them for dessert
or something..."
Mulder smiled and accepted the love offering on behalf of Alex. He to the
young woman kindly, "Thanks Kelly. I promise to give them to Alex when he
comes home. I'm sure he will want to come down and thank-you personally later.
Kelly grinned and flipped her straight hair back over her shoulder. "Thanks
Mr. Mulder. I appreciate that."
Mulder closed the door. He put the berries along with the other food from the
canvass bag into the fridge so that it would not go bad. When he was done,
Mulder left the small apartment to go to the one place he knew Alex would be.
Back to the surface to the office where they had both first laid eyes on each
other.
"You don't know the first
thing about me!"
Mulder rounded the corner to the doorway of the abandoned bullpen and stopped.
Hr stood still for a moment and looked around. Suddenly he was hit with a
strong wave of nostalgia mixed with loss as he recalled all of the people that
he had worked with, at one time or another over the years who had not survived
the viral holocaust. It no longer mattered whether or not he had liked the
people or they him, he was still saddened by their deaths none the less.
Alex's gaze was transfixed on the bright red liquid, seemingly mesmerized by
the crimson rivulets. He neither saw nor heard Mulder standing there watching
him.
Mulder took the opportunity to watch Alex for another minute, profiling his
lover/new brother as he did. Cutting into one self was not something a fully
grown adult usually did. It was more of a behavior indicative of an
adolescent.
Mulder continued to watch Alex, until the younger man raised the knife to make
a fifth slice into his new arm. Stepping over to Alex quickly, he gently took
the knife away from him. "I think you've done enough damage to the
merchandise." Mulder said. "Don't you?" Trying to affect his best
psychologist tone.
Alex brought his head up and stared at Mulder. His eyes were moist but the
tears had long since ceased in falling. "What are you doing here?" He asked
dully, ignoring the blood dripping over both sides of his left arm.
Reaching to a nearby shelf, Mulder pulled several tissues out of a box—
impressed that even after all of this time they had stayed relatively intact—
then he grabbed Alex by the wrist firmly and held the resisting man's arm
still. He pressed the kleenex to the cuts and as he applied pressure he told
Alex what was in his heart.
Alex looked up to Mulder, hope creeping onto his handsome face.
"I doesn't matter what my mother said. I mean it's not like we even knew each
other as children..." Mulder reasoned.
Krycek nodded his head but remained silent.
"...For lack of a better example, you're imprinted on me Alex, as my lover...
my true love... not as my sibling." Mulder couldn't quite bring himself to say
'brother' besides. He didn't want to keep reminding himself of the fact.
"I don't care that were swimming in the same gene pool... Aberrant or not...
I love you Alex Krycek and I won't do with out you. That is if you still feel
the same way about me?"
Mulder knew before hand from reading his thoughts how Alex felt, but he still
wanted to give him the option of backing out of their fledgling relationship.
Uncrossing his legs, Alex tossed aside the blood soaked tissue and scooted to
the end of the dusty desktop. He answered the question by reaching out and
wrapping his arms around Mulder's thin waist and pulling him in close for a
tight hug. He rested his head against Mulder's grumbling stomach, the noises
brought a brief smile to his lips.
Mulder automatically put his hand on Alex and petted his soft, fresh smelling
hair. "I could never leave you Alex. If this ...little revelation couldn't
split us up nothing will." Mulder stopped stroking and wrapped his arms around
Alex's head and hugged him back tightly. Part III
"I was just thinking what a man said to me... that the... that the
dead speak to us from the beyond the grave. That, that's what
conscience is."
Dana Scully.
Teena Mulder, dressed in her best out fit, the one that she had been
wearing for lunch with her son when they had been forced underground, washed
down the last of her stroke medicine with a large glass of ice cold water. In
all, she had taken over fifty pills, in three separate mouth fulls.
She put the glass back on her stand and lay back comfortably; patiently
awaiting for her long dead husband to call her back into his arms. Maybe now
in death, they could finally find the happiness that had alluded them during
their married life together.
Mulder turned off the water in the small shower before kneeling down between
Krycek's splayed legs. He looked up at the younger man, gave him a quick,
lascivious grin then swallowed down his hard cock right to its root.
Alex inhaled noisily with pleasure, his fingers automatically tangling with
Mulder's wet hair.
Mulder thought that sexuality oozed from every one of the Russians' pores. He
wondered if it was this, the same kind of erotic sensuality, that had drawn his
father so irresistibly to Alex's mother. Maybe she was the same, and if so,
well the junior Mulder could see how his father had been unable to resist the
charms of the beautiful Russian woman. He himself, had certainly been unable
to refuse Alex's own irresistible magnetism. The younger man seemed to have a
natural ease with sex and Mulder knew that, that particular trait certainly
hadn't come from his side of the family. After a minute, he pushed these
thoughts aside, and concentrated on trying to keep up with deep throating Alex
without choking himself.
Closing his eyes, Alex threw his head back far enough to touch the shower wall
behind him. His spine was arched sensually, forcing his hips and considerable
erection forward, directly down Mulder's throat. Having already abandoned
Mulder's hair, his right hand was gripping the side of the soap dish tightly,
steadying his body in the small, slippery cubicle.
All the while using his left hand to play roughly with his own chest and
nipples and mumbling in Russian. Random musings came and went quickly through
his mind, all of them instantly forgotten when Mulder stuck his tongue directly
into the slit of his cock. "Oh fuck yeah... " He uttered in English.
Mulder gently fingered Alex's tight opening and when it was sufficiently
loosened, he slipped his index finger in all the way.
Alex jolted and pressed his hips out farther, his spine taking on a greater
degree of arch.
"Oh, yessss... " Alex mumbled coherently.
Changing tactics, Mulder pulled his hand away and used only his mouth in which
to pleasure Alex. He used his newly freed hand to grasp Alex's heavy sac;
squeezing the soft genitals firmly. Both of his hands and his mouth work in
sync with each other now and when he felt the skin encasing Alex's balls
tighten and the surface become rippled, he knew that his partner was ready to
ejaculate. Mulder applied more pressure to Alex's inner gland and then pulled
his mouth away, just in time for the younger man to released his seed all over
Mulder's chest, neck and chin.
"Fox!" Shrieked Alex, as his knees straightened and then locked with orgasm.
Mulder released Alex, then stood up and kissed the panting Russian deeply.
Smiling when Alex murmured into his mouth that he was 'weak kneed'.
"I bet." Mulder quipped as he twisted around in the tiny space and turned the
water back on, giving both of them one last rinse...
After they had finished showering and dressing, Alex prepared dinner while
Mulder set the table. During dessert, as the men ate Kelly's raspberry
offerings, Mulder told Alex about Kelly, the berries and her obvious crush on
him. He was having fun in teasing Alex about the pretty young woman and even
went so far as to playfully accuse Alex of being a shameless flirt.
Choking on his desert and blushing furiously, Alex adamantly swore that he had
not made any indecent advances toward her. "She is,.." He declared
seriously, ".... after all, only in her early twenties."
Mulder laughed and Alex and shook his head. The Russian was still stammering
that his intentions were honorable when he finally clued in that he was merely
being kidded.
Later that evening, Mulder who had been keeping a personal diary of the events
of the past year, has sat down and tried to accomplish some writing on his lap
top. But he happened to look over his shoulder at Alex and his thoughts left
his head. He was unable to resist the prostrate man as he performed the
incredible, sexy task of reading a novel. Mulder quietly shut the lid to his
computer and then leapt the three feet from his chair onto the bed, landing
right next to Alex.
"I wouldn't have started to get into a book if I'd thought you were only going
to write for... " Alex glanced at the small clock on the night stand, "...
twenty minutes."
"Mmmmm. I couldn't concentrate." Mulder said while nuzzling at Alex's neck,
who was trying to finish the sentence he had been reading. "I had other things
on my mind... "
Alex grinned and gave up no the sentence he had been attempting to read.
"Mulder. Just let me finish this paragraph." He closed the book using his
finger as a bookmark, pretending to ignore Mulder, who was now nibbling on his
ear.
"Okay, okay." Mulder mumbled petulantly, slowly removing his lips from Alex's
lobe. He snuggled in close to Alex and asked, "What are you reading any
ways?" Reaching out, Mulder petted the Russians' semi-erection through his
sweat pants.
Alex swallowed hard and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on what Mulder
was asking him. "It's a Michael Slade book." He said finally.
Mulder, thoroughly enjoying himself, did not ease up with his ministrations.
"That's pretty grisly fiction. Haven't you had enough death and destruction?"
He gave the growing bulge beneath his palm a light squeeze.
Mulder laughed hard at that, Alex was right, it was him book after all.
Alex took the opportunity of the momentary distraction and flipped Mulder over
flat on his back and then lay directly on top of him. "Now,..." He said as he
pinned Mulder's arms over his head, "It's my turn to fondle you..." Lowering
his mouth to Mulder's he gently bit the older man's juicy, lower lip.
The love making over with, both men laid close together, snuggled up tightly
within each others arms and talked. Which, for some reason, seemed easier to
do in the dark.
The Next Day
"Maybe we bury the dead alive."
Dana Scully.
Mulder rapped on his mother's door, again, this time harder. Giving up on
knocking he tried the knob and found that it was unlocked so he walked in
calling out "Mom? Are you here?" He closed the door behind himself and
started looking around for her. He had already checked the gardens and the med
lab and knew for certain that she wasn't there. So she had to be home.
"Scully." Came the cursory greeting.
"It's me." Fox said softly.
"Mulder." Scully could tell by the tone in Mulder's voice that something was
not right. "What's wrong?" She asked him immediately.
"Come quick, it's my mother. I think she's dead!" He said desperately.
Twelve hours later
"Mulder are you sure you want to stay for his?" Asked Scully practically.
By the time she had arrived at the apartment, there positively was no hope for
Mrs. Mulder. She been dead for several hours. All that she could to do was
the autopsy, for which she really thought that Mulder should not be present
for.
"Yes... No... I don't know." Admitted Mulder.
Scully held the scalpel lightly in her fingers. This was the first time that
she and Mulder had really talked since slapping his face and walking out on him
a few days before. "Look Mulder, you know as well as I do that the Y incision
is never pretty, especially when it's your loved one being cut open. Why don't
you go back to your place? I'll call you when I'm done."
Frowning at the thought of having to go back to his apartment, Mulder shook his
head 'No'. He had been avoiding Alex ever since he had discovered his mother,
and though Mulder knew rationally that none of this was Alex's fault, he
couldn't help but feel that the younger man was in part, to blame.
Before she could go any further than sinking the tip of the knife in, Mulder
had blanched at the sight of the stainless steel instrument poking into his
mother. Turning quickly on his heel he rushed out of the room saying as he
went, "I'll talk to you later... I gotta go... "
Scully watched as her former partner beat a hasty exit from the cold,
impersonal examining room. She glanced down at the regal woman on the table
before her and filing away her personal feelings, she pushed the knife in and
continued this time in earnest, with making the large incision.
Several hours later Scully had confirmed her original findings. Mrs. Mulder had
died by how own hand; suicide by ingestion of a narcotic. Scully had thought
as much when she had first seen the older woman laying peacefully in her own
bed. The empty prescription bottle along with the toxicology results gave her
the answers as to how she died.
Scully looked at her watch and yawned. She had been up and dealing with Fox
and Mrs. Mulder for over twenty- fours hours now, and as much as she needed to
speak to Mulder, she also needed to sleep.
Alex was angrily jamming what few clothes and possessions he did have into a
back pack when a knock at the door interrupted his packing. He thought about
just ignoring the intrusive summons but he reconsidered and dropping his
knapsack on the bed, went to answer the door.
She walked in and asked as Alex closed the door behind her, "Is Mulder home?"
Krycek turned around, his face smooth and expressionless. "No." He said
simply. "He's not."
Dana's eyebrows went up in surprise, "Oh?" She said.
By the way that she had said 'oh', Alex couldn't tell if she thought that he
was lying or not. Suddenly, he resented her presence in the apartment and just
wanted to be alone again.
Krycek walked back into the bedroom and picked up his knapsack. He reflected
on how it easily it held everything that he owned in the world; his whole life
fit into a two by two canvass bag. Shoving his toothbrush on top of his
shirts, Alex belted the sack shut and slung both straps over one shoulder. He
picked up his grey fleece kangaroo coat and tied it around his waist. Then
with one last look around the tiny living space that he had shared with Mulder,
he left the apartment. He'd had just three short weeks of happiness, but it
was enough. Never before, could he remember ever having been happy as he had
been for the last couple of weeks.
"Alex?" Mulder called softly, as he peeked around the corner and into the
bedroom. He knew full well that his lover was no longer in the apartment.
But he refused to touch the Russians thoughts in order to try to find out where
he was. Mulder had been and still was trying to avoid him.
"Mulder." Scully called as she pushed open the un-latched door.
Mulder turned around and went back down the hall, he was relieved to see that
it was Scully standing in his living room and not Krycek. "Come in." He
invited.
"Are you alone?" She asked.
"Seems that way." Mulder said, itching absently at one eyebrow.
"I have the results of your moms autopsy. I came by earlier but Krycek said
you hadn't been home."
"Yeah?" Was all Mulder said. He didn't want to get into things with Scully
especially where Alex was concerned. He sat on the couch and asked her, "What
have you got?" Indicating with a nod of his head toward the file that she was
holding.
Scully sat across from Mulder and flipped open the beige folder and began to
recite her findings, mostly from memory. Wrapping things up she said, "Your
mother died because she ingested an intentional overdose of her stroke
medication." She let the words sink in a bit before saying, "She took her own
life...Fox..." Reaching, she grasped his hand. "...I'm so sorry..."
Mulder nodded his head; powerless against the tears of grief from cascading
down his cheeks. He knew the reason why his mother had ended her own life, and
it hurt him, deeply.
Scully continued, "Otherwise, she was healthy, except.." She hesitated.
"Except what?" Mulder asked, brushing away the tears.
"She had a chip in her neck Mulder." She ripped at some tape stapled to the
edge of the file. The small metal chip, no bigger than the diameter of a
pencil eraser, was stuck securely between two pieces of clear plastic tape.
"Did you know?" She asked gently, fairly sure she already knew the answer to
her question.
"No." Mulder said dully, shaking his head at the revelation. "I didn't."
Scully put the evidence back into the file and closed it. She handed it over
to Mulder and said, "I wonder if she even knew about the chip either?" She
stood up after Mulder had taken the file and put a comforting hand on his
shoulder. "I know we've had some differences about some things, but I'm always
here for you." She smiled down at the grief-stricken man, who smile wanly back
up at her.
"I know." He said, just a little bit sad as he patted the back of her hand.
"Mulder." Scully couldn't believe what she was about to say.
"Hmmmm."
"Your mother took her own life for her own reasons. Nothing you or Krycek said
or did made her do it. He's not the guilty party in all of this and neither
are you. It was your mother's choice. Hers' alone." Scully patted him again
and said, "I'll talk to you later."
Mulder turned on his boom box, he needed to do some soul searching and for
that, he needed music. Not bothering with checking what the cd was in the
player, he pushed the start button and smiled at the song that had begun to
play.
"How can I just let you walk away, just let you leave without a trace."
Mulder could see Alex clearly, cutting into his own body with a knife to
release his inner pain.
"When I stand here taking every breath with you. You're the only one, who
really knew me at all."
He could feel how Alex had felt when he thought that Mulder was rejecting him
that first time. His despair of not being wanted by his parents.
"How can you just walk away from me? When all I can do is watch you
leave?"
Mulder knew how Alex had felt over his lack of control over everything that
happened in his life. And Mulder understood the Russian's attempt to control
the whole big mess by leaving Mulder before he could be told to get lost.
"Cause we shared the laughter and the pain and we've even shared the
tears."
Clenching his fists tightly, Mulder could still feel Alex, that first night
together, in his arms and crying because he could not save humanity from the
colonists.
"You're the only one who really knew me at all. So take a look at me now,
cause there's just an empty space and there's nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face."
Alex's innate sense of loneliness despite being surrounded by fourty people.
Mulder buried his face in his hands. How could he just let Alex go away?
Again. Especially after he had declared to him that NOTHING would ever keep
them apart.
He kept turning Scully's words over and over inside his head, and finally
Mulder came to a conclusion.
"I wish that I could just make you turn around, turn around and see me cry.
There's so much I need to say to you so many reasons why. You're the only one,
who really knew me at all. So take a look at me now......"
Sighing heavily, Mulder reached over and shut the music off. He cleared out
all of his thoughts and reached out for Alex's.
Discovering where his lover was; Mulder stood up and went to retrieve him from
the armory.
Alex clicked the safety on then jammed the loaded gun into the waistband at
the back of his jeans. He had already carefully stashed away the spare ammo in
his knapsack and had hidden two knifes on his person, directly next to his
skin.
"Thanks for fixing me up Josh." He said to the former F.B.I. agent, now in
charge of the small groups weaponry.
"No problem. Alex." Josh replied, smiling at the Russian. Josh had seen
Krycek, once before, in the real world, before the plague. Alex had been in
the bureau's cafeteria with Mulder eating a sandwich and laughing at something
the laconic agent had said. Josh had been a rookie then, still in the academy
training program and on a tour of the building.
Alex looked up and smiled at the younger man. Pleased that at least someone
had found him attractive enough to make a pass at. "Maybe I will." He replied
lightly, knowing full well he wouldn't. But the flirting helped to take his
mind off of Fox.
"Gee Josh,... " Mulder said sarcastically, "... don't you have other guns to
clean or something?"
Both men were standing close to each other, face to face and each of them swung
their heads around to look at Mulder, who was leaning against the frame of the
door. And both of the men frowned in unison, but for very different
reasons.
Mulder had tried to keep the jealousy out of his voice, but it was apparent,
even to him that he had failed.
"Can you excuse us please Josh?" Krycek said turning his gaze back to the young
man.
"Sure." Josh replied. He nodded his head to the other agent in acknowledgment
and said blandly by way of a greeting, "Mulder." And then he left the two men
alone.
"Were not even broken up and you're already replacing me?" Mulder said.
Angry with Alex and Josh; the adoring, much younger man.
Alex frowned, and the lines cut deeply across the bridge of his nose. "He was
just flirting Fox. It didn't mean anything."
"No?"
"No." Alex said again, this time more firmly. "Why are you here?" He asked.
Mulder swallowed hard but he did not answer Alex's question instead he asked,
"Why are you here at the armory? I can't believe that you're walking out on
us. How could you? My mothers' only been dead two days." He was still angry
and still a little bit jealous, and he sounded it.
"I thought after what happened, you wanted me to go. You certainly gave me
that impression." Replied Alex, a lot calmer than he felt. He bent over and
picked up his knapsack.
"No." Mulder said softly. "I don't want you to leave. Where are you going to
go to?"
Alex shrugged his knapsack over his shoulders, answering as he made the weight
on his back comfortable. "Once, while they were experimenting on me, I heard
a female voice. I was really out of it, they had drugged up pretty good a
few times back then. But I coherent enough to know that I'd heard a woman
talking. I didn't recognize her at all, but then a man called out the name
Sam and she answered him The male's voice I did know. It belonged to
Spender."
Mulder watch Krycek for a second then quickly closed the distance between
them. He grabbed Alex by the arm and spun him around violently.
Alex flinched when Mulder had grabbed him, thinking that he was about to get
hit again.
"Why didn't you mention this 'Sam' thing before?" Mulder asked in an accusing
tone.
"Because I'm not even sure, I'm right. It happened a long time ago when I was
flying high on drugs. I just thought I would check it out first before getting
your hopes up. That's all." He jerked his arm out of Mulder's vice like
grip and scowled. "I don't even know if Spender or the woman behind the voice
is alive anymore. I don't have the luxury of reading other people's thoughts.
All I have to go on is a hazy memory of voices down the hall. I just wanted to
surprise you Mulder, to cheer you up. If you couldn't come to me for solace
over your mother, I thought at least you could go to your sister, if she were
here."
"No Wait. Alex." Mulder finally shouted anxiously. "I'm sorry. Please don't
leave... me... " He couldn't bear to lose Alex again, no matter what came to
pass. He had briefly contemplated just letting the Russian go, but then, when
he thought that this might be the last time he would ever see him again, he
just couldn't do it.
"Fox. Either way, I promise to come back. We'll talk things out then." He
kissed Mulder again, but still the former agent would not let him go.
"Wait a few days Alex and I'll go with you. We'll find our sister together."
Mulder petitioned.
"Hey, when you go underground,
you gotta learn to live with the rats."
Alex Krycek.
"I always did hate picking a lock." Krycek said as he stomped over the boards
and into the darkened lobby.
"Well, if they didn't know we weren't here before, they do now." Mulder said
dryly, following Krycek in.
Alex looked over his shoulder and said, "You think anyone is going to hear us
from 30 floors up?" He smiled and drawing his gun, he gingerly opened the door
to the fire stairs. Taking a quick peek using a small halogen flashlight to
light up the black stairwell, he made sure that no one was lurking in the
shadows, waiting to kill them. Then he took the point and started up the
stairs first.
When Alex had finally reached the top, a heavy wooden door separated them from
stair well and the hallway of the penthouse suites. Krycek paused and waited
for his partner.
Mulder came to a stand still behind Alex and after a few seconds of silence he
whispered softly into his ear, "Well? What are we waiting for?"
"I'm thinking." Alex whispered back squatting down against the wall next to
the door.
Mulder grinned, "That would explain the smoke coming from your ears."
Krycek groaned at the bad joke and Mulder reached for the door knob, but before
he could grasp it, Alex stopped him by seizing his wrist.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Something's not right. Can't you feel it?" Krycek replied.
Mulder shook his head 'no' and gingerly rubbed at his wrist where Alex had
grabbed him.
Krycek reached out and plucked a stray hair off of the fleece collar of
Mulder's pullover. It was long and red, leaving little doubt about whose it
was.
And a good thing to, because both men now sported extremely short hair cuts
and Alex definitely needed something longer than half and inch to perform his
'test.'
Krycek smiled and said, "Every other door has been steel, except for this one.
It's made of wood and the knob is larger than the others. While I was waiting
for you, I could feel the hairs on my neck standing up." He shrugged, as if
it was no big deal to have guessed correctly and prevented Mulder from
experiencing first hand, an execution.
Alex performed the same test with the hair over the hinges and thought that
they were most likely not guarded by electricity. He pulled off one black
leather glove and held it in his teeth, the he put an experimental finger on
the surface of the hinge closest to the floor.
Mulder hissed with a quick intake of air and was glad to see Alex still
squatting and not laying on the floor trying to recover from mega volts of
electrical current running through his body.
He thought to himself that once this was all over with he was going to have to
try and cure Alex of his reckless tendencies.
"Good news... " Alex started to say.
"Yeah. Your not fried bacon right now!" Whispered Mulder sarcastically.
The Russian frowned briefly and ignored Mulder. He said instead, "I think it's
just the knob that's juiced up. If we pull the hinges off, we should be able
to get in no problem. Electricity won't travel through the wood." He reached
into a pocket deep inside of his black fleece utility vest and came out with a
small, flat head screw driver.
Mulder nodded back and said, "Ready." He stepped backwards a few paces so
that his back was flat against the far wall. He held his automatic in the
firing position, standing tall while Alex crouched low.
"Thank god it wasn't wired for a bomb." Alex commented casually as he passed
through the frame.
"Now you think of that?" Muttered Mulder as he swept his light over two
ominous looking wires that were leading from where the latch of the door met
the frame. A large unit used for electric fencing appearing to be run by a
generator, and was at the other end of the current carrying wires. Mulder knew
that simply touching an electric fence alone would not kill you, but there some
various other bits and pieces attached to the unit that he did not recognize.
They were what probably made the whole getup lethal.
"Are you coming or what?" Alex whispered loudly.
Mulder trained his light directly onto Alex's crotch. "Not yet, maybe later?"
He joked.
"God, you are so funny!" Alex said rolling his eyes upward.
"Which door?" Asked Mulder when he got close to his companion.
"According to Langley, and from what I remember, that one." Krycek pointed to
the door at the end of the hall.
"Let's go do it." And this time Mulder walked the point. Both of the men were
careful to stick very close to the walls, they swept their flashlights
everywhere, looking for hidden booby traps and for watching and listening
devices.
They reached the door without any problems, and remarkably, Alex was able to
crack the lock to the apartment quite easily; pleased that he didn't even have
to kick this door in. He held onto the knob, but before he twisted and opened
it he turned around to face Mulder who was standing behind him and said, "If
Samantha does live here, she won't be the same person anymore. You have to be
ready for the fact that she may not want to come with us."
Mulder nodded solemnly, "I know." He said and then it was his turn to restrain
Alex from opening the door, "No matter what, Sam doesn't get hurt right?"
Alex hesitated for a half second then nodded.. "Right." He said, and then he
pushed the door in, but was prevented from going any further by two security
chains.
The large penthouse was both quiet and dark, but Krycek could feel it in his
bones that someone, besides them, was inside the place. He indicated with his
hand that Mulder should go right and using his finger he drew a circle on the
palm of his other hand, saying that they would meet up somewhere in the middle.
Mulder nodded once and started to stalk silently through the darkness. Krycek
did the same as he went to the left.
Mulder froze and listened intently, he thought that he could hear the sound of
shuffling of papers. He materialized from around a corner and to his
surprise, saw CBG Spender. The old man had his back to him and was listening
to a cd with headphones on. He seemed to be going through some papers; using
only a small, dim light in which to read by. No wonder he and Alex had not
been heard when they entered. The old man's ever present cigarette was burning
away in a nearby ashtray, adding an unpleasant overall stink to the small,
windowless room.
Mulder could hear Verdi coming from the small speakers. "Easy." He said.
"Put your hands on the top of your head."
Spender smiled and did as he was told, then he turned around and directed his
unsettling smile at Fox Mulder.
"Why Fox Mulder. How are you?" Spender seemed very unconcerned at having a
high-power hand gun pointed at his chest.
Mulder narrowed his eyes at Spender and said casually, "Ohhh, I don't know.
Could be better, you see I've been a little depressed lately."
"That's too bad. I'm sorry to hear that." Spender replied, just as casually.
"Yeah, well a virus wiping out just about everyone on the planet might have
something to do with it!" He clenched his teeth, determined this time not to
let Spender get off as easily had he had done in the past. "Where's my
sister?" He asked. "Alex says she lives with you." Mulder spoke to the old
man like he knew it for a fact.
Spenders' false smile lapsed for just a second, and it was then that Mulder
knew the old man knew her whereabouts. The smoker gathered himself together
again and tried to change the subject. "Alex?" He questioned. "Krycek?"
"You know goddamned well I mean Alex Krycek." Mulder said, letting his anger
show.
"The last time I saw young Alex he was busy getting probes driven down his tear
ducts, in a very painful study of a humans endurance to torture. Obviously he
managed to give the aliens the slip."
Mulder could tell that the smoker was buying time. Trying to think his way out
of the end of a gun muzzle.
"Since my mother informed me that we were brothers." Mulder took great
pleasure in throwing that little secret back into his face.
Spender's eyebrows rose in shock. He honestly thought that Teena would have
taken that family secret to the grave with her, Bill Mulder had.
He tried to compose himself. "Where's Krycek now?" He asked. Flicking his
eyes left and then right quickly.
Spender started to ask another question, but Mulder out of patience, yelled at
him, "Shut up!" Then he lowered his voice and said, "It's time for you to
answer my questions. Now, where is my sister?"
Spender smiled malevolently and said, "She's dead."
"Fucking bastard. You're lying." His finger tensed on the trigger.
"No Fox. I'm not." Spender saw the anguish in Mulder's eyes. He was enjoying
himself and he knew that if he could keep the unbalanced former agent talking
long enough, he would be able to worm his way out of this mess. Just like all
the other times he had done in the past.
"Then there's no reason not to kill you." Mulder was tired of Spender's mind
games.
"I can help you Fox. I can help you kill the aliens." Spender said anxiously,
worried that Mulder just might not let him walk away this time.
Mulder laughed sarcastically. He couldn't believe that the old man actually
thought that he would trust him. Straightening his elbow out, Mulder shored up
his aim, "You're not the boogeyman any more old man. They are and guess what?
They scare me more than you do!"
By now he was shouting again, and suddenly the man before him not longer held
any of the playing cards. With a thought for Alex and all of his suffering,
and for his sister and her suffering, Mulder swallowed and said, "I think
you've destroyed enough of humanity. It's time to pay for your crimes."
Mulder pulled the trigger without hesitating and the bullet passed cleanly
through the old man's heart, killing him instantly.
Spender fell from the chair and landed on the carpet in a crumpled heap, his
large body making a soft 'thud' as he hit.
She stepped through the darkened doorway aiming a gun with a silencer on the
end if it, directly at Mulder.
Mulder wondered where Alex was, surely he had to be hiding, staying in the
shadows and backing him up just in case. But then, he saw the look on the
woman's face, it was contorted with rage and anger. Horrified, it struck
Mulder suddenly that she must have found and killed Alex somehow, which could
be the reason why she nor Alex hadn't appeared before now.
The woman smoothed out her features and Mulder just stared at her, dumbstruck.
Realizing with a pounding heart that he was looking at his long missing sister.
"You just killed my father...." Samantha hissed coldly "....and now I'm going
to kill you." She watched the unfamiliar man closely as he stared at her as if
he was in a daze.
"Samantha. It's me, Fox. I'm your older brother." Pleaded Mulder in
desperation.
"My brother is dead to me." Samantha said emotionlessly. "He stood by and
watched while I was kidnaped. So if you're him, I guess I owe you this... "
At the very same time as Samantha pulled the trigger, Alex had leapt out of
the darkness and jammed a taser into her neck. The expended bullet went wild,
the gun fell from Samantha's hand as she toppled forward, landing not two feet
from her dead 'father.'
"Fox! NO!" Screamed Alex, ignoring the falling woman completely and running
to Mulder's side. He dropped to knees and was panicked when he saw that Mulder
was bleeding profusely from the head. Alex wiped the blood away from Mulder's
eyes and forehead. And to his extreme relief he saw that the bullet had not
penetrated Mulder's skull at all, but had grazed him, deeply across his
forehead, where the hair met the skin. "Fox. Fox. Wake up" Alex called
anxiously as he gently slapped Mulder on the cheek.
Mulder's eyes fluttered and then finally opened. "Alex..You're alive... " He
was sure that Samantha had shot and killed him.
"Oh god Fox! I'm so sorry." Alex cried, pulling the bleeding man into his
arms. "I was hanging back waiting to see what would happen. I didn't want to
blow my cover... I'm so sorry Fox. I didn't think she would fire."
With Alex's help, Mulder sat up slowly. "It's okay Alex... " He said shakily,
"It's not your fault."
Krycek let Mulder go of and took a second to pull himself together. There
would plenty of time to feel guilty later right now, his lover needed him. He
tore open and velcro closed pocket on the side of his pants and pulled the
first aid kit out.
"Alex?...did you?" Mulder couldn't bring himself to ask the question.
The Russian turned around, and immediately understood what Fox wanted to know.
"No Fox. No. She's okay. I promise. I tasered her when I realized that she
was going to shoot you, brother or not." As he spoke to Mulder, Alex poked his
finger through the various medical supplies and finding what he was looking
for, picked it up. He bit the top off of a small vial containing a prepared,
single dose needle and spit it carelessly out.
"Behave." Alex said, lightly slapping at the back of Mulder's hand before
physically removing it from his crotch. None the less, he was pleased to see
that Mulder at least had a sense of humor about all of this.
He had Mulder lay back and used a cushion from the smokers chair to cradle his
head from the hard floor with. It also propped up Mulder's head and made it
easier for him to work.
When Alex had pulled on his latex gloves, it reminded Mulder briefly of Scully
and the way she used to love to 'snap on the rubber', as he always used to say
to her.
Alex removed the pad and doused the still bleeding wound liberally with the
numbing powder. He waited a few seconds for it to take effect then he picked
up the Novocain and stuck the tip of the syringe directly into the raw, exposed
flesh of the cut, making sure to put some in several places along the wound .
Mulder flinched and grunted, but other wise the pain was not as bad as thought
it would be.
The Novocain worked quickly, and after only 10 minutes, Alex was able to begin
the rest of his mending. He throughly cleaned out the gash with saline and
antiseptic. Then using small the needlenose locking forceps, he picked up the
first suture needle and began to stitch. He did not bother doing individual
knots like a doctor would, but instead opted for a standard 'whip' stitch,
where the threads were one continuous stitch drawn very close together. He did
not have to knot and cut the silk until he was finished which came after he had
completed twenty perfectly neat and even sutures.
"Now I'm sure to get better." Mulder teased, handing back the bottle of water
to Alex.
"Come on Fox, we need to get back to base. Both you and Samantha need to see
Scully." He stood up, extended his hand and helped Mulder to stand up.
Mulder swayed a bit, and Alex grabbed him firmly around the waist. On the return trip Alex couldn't help but think that Mulder was in for a big
disappointment. If Fox thought that Samantha would accept him with out
question back into her life, then he was sadly mistaken. She had been ripped
from the only home she had ever known.
Part IV
Scully dropped her glasses on top of the data that she had been collating
and rubbed vigorously at her tired eyes. She had been studying the data for
weeks now and finally had some solid answers. Coming to those conclusions
seemed to be the easy part, the hard part was putting her findings down on
paper in a language that the council could comprehend. She still had a few
unanswered questions left and for those, she would have to seek out
Mulder.
Grimacing at that, Scully thought, Just one more thing Krycek's
responsible for.
Glancing down at her watch, she saw that it was already past one in the
morning. The meeting in which her findings were to be discussed was
scheduled for ten a.m. and she still had a lot of writing to do yet. So
yawning, she wearily put her glasses back on and readying her fingers, began
to type.
Alex looked at his watch. It was 1:15 in the morning, he hoped that
Samantha was still awake. Almost every other night, when he couldn't
sleep, he would wander across the shelter and visit his half sister.
Of course he had not told her that they were related, both he and Mulder
felt that it would be too much for her to take in; her psyche was still so
very fragile.
Mulder had mused to out loud that she had allowed Alex into her life because
though she had never met him, his name was at least familiar to her.
Alex had promised Mulder to do his best in bringing her around, wisely
telling his lover that all she needed was time and understanding, both of
which he had plenty of.
Though Samantha had not been bent to the consortium's will by violence and
brutality, but by love, she still was not that much different from Alex.
Two very different methods bringing about the same results; two people so
unsure of their own reality that they had to seek the truth others just to
validate themselves.
Spender had done his job, and done it well. He had successfully erased
Samantha's memories of her real family and raised her believing that 'he'
was her father.
Alex Krycek understood his sister without even having to know her.
He saw the light peeking out from under the front door of her quarters and
after tapping softly, waited patiently for her to answer. A few seconds
later the door cracked open and Samantha smiled softly.
She opened the door wider and said, "Come in."
"I didn't wake you did I?" Alex asked her as he walked in.
"No. I was up." She pointed to an armchair that had a novel laying face
down over the armrest. "See."
She made him an instant coffee and then took the seat that she had
previously been curled up in.
As Alex sipped quietly at his coffee, it dawned on him that the late night
sessions were just as therapeutic for him as they were for Samantha. He put
his mug down and started the conversation. And after a half hour of small
talk, Alex gradually led the dialogue into another direction. Slowly easing
Sam into the real issues that she carried.
They talked some more and then Alex said to her simply, "Sam. I know."
"You know what?" She replied, her voice afraid and her eyes wide.
"I know what your 'father' did to you." He studied the fragile woman; she
looked so terribly young then, even though she was 35 years old. Her large
chestnut eyes immediately welled up and unbidden tears spilled over her
delicate cheeks. And suddenly, twenty years of secrets became too
unbearable to keep.
Alex immediately went to Sam's side and gathered her up into a tight, secure
embrace. He had only guessed that Spender had been sneaking into her bed at
night. But the guess was wholly educated; based on some facts that he knew
first hand.
The first real barrier to bringing Samantha back into the fold had been torn
down. "I know." Alex said softly rocking the sobbing woman after her
confession of the abuse.
And it was then, that Samantha knew, without Alex even having to say the
words, that he truly did understand why she was crying. She hugged him
tightly and tried to give back to him some comfort, for the old wounds that
had not fully healed for him either.
Two hours later the tears long since dried, Sam was smiling and seeing her
new friend out the door. She felt renewed, if not 100% better. The weight
that she had been carrying had been lifted from her shoulders like a thick
fog on an English moor.
Before he left, Alex turned to Samantha and said to her, "Tonight was good
for me too. I needed to be with you. But I haven't told you some important
'things' about myself. Really important 'stuff'. I can't tell you yet... But I promise to tell you one day... when were both ready. The thing
is, I don't want you to be angry with me once you find out about me."
Samantha squeezed Alex's hand reassuringly, "I promise to accept whatever it
is... I don't mind waiting to hear your secrets." She kissed Alex's
cheek gently, "Don't worry Alex," she said softly, "... whenever you're
ready to tell me, I'll be here."
"Were not even yet, boy."
Walter Skinner.
Alex left Samantha's apartment and started for his and Mulder's place. The
halls were dark, if not a little bit eerie at this later hour.
Sam was staying clear across the underground bunker from where he was
living. It seemed living a solitary life, well away from the glare of
others came naturally to the Mulder siblings.
Great! Here we go again! He thought just before a leather
shoestring type garrote circled his neck.
Alex couldn't see who was holding the garrote, but by judging from the body
odor, it was one of Skinner's minions, a man named Sparks. Krycek never
did trust that shifty eyed guy, now he knew why.
The only light in the otherwise dark stairwell landing came from Alex's
flashlight. Which had been lost in the initial struggle and was now laying
in a corner, shining in their general direction. Walter Skinner emerged
from the shadows, Alex could barely see, but he recognized the former
Director's large form easily enough.
Alex's thoughts turned from Skinner, to preserving his life as he brought
his hands up to his neck and tried to ease the choking effects of the
garrote.
Sparks knew his stuff though and he held the garrote with just enough
pressure to subdue Krycek. Restricting the Russian's air supply, but not
pulling tight enough to actually strangle and kill him.
Skinner stood directly in front of Alex and gave him a malicious smile, then
he hauled off and punched him, four times.
Alex fell to his knees, and once again found himself gasping for breath at
the feet of Walter Skinner.
Squatting down, Skinner's arm snaked out and he grabbed Krycek by his short
bangs. He reefed Alex's head back and forced the dazed man to look him in
the eyes.
By this time, Sparks had pulled his own flashlight out and was shining it on
the two men.
"I told you once, long ago, that we weren't even." Skinner licked his dry
lips, "That other beating was for all of the other shit that you've pulled
over the years. This one was for jumping me at the hospital that time and
for the nano-bots." He studied Alex's face, noting that the place along
the younger man's jaw line was already starting to bruise and a small amount
of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. A bruise, matching his large
knuckle marked the same corner of Alex's mouth as the blood.
Alex cradled his tender, aching stomach beneath his hands. He was feeling
lightheaded from all the gasping that he had been doing and tried to bring
his panting under control.
"Were done now... Boy... don't ever cross me again." Skinner
hissed. Then with a final, remorseful glance at Krycek, Skinner and Sparks
left.
Alex stared after Skinner for a few seconds, then he got up and retrieved
his flashlight. He checked the time on his watch. Mulder would defiantly
be asleep by now.
There was no way that Mulder would not see the bruises.
Alex flipped off the bathroom light and padded down the hall to the bedroom
in complete darkness.
Mulder murmured, comforted by Alex's presence and settled back into sleep.
Alex kissed the back of Mulder's neck and set his mental alarm clock to wake
at 8:00 a.m.. Both he and Mulder had to meet with the council in the
morning. Letting his lids fall closed, Alex was instantly asleep.
The Next Morning
Mulder rolled over seeking Alex, and when he didn't immediately find him,
his eyes cracked open.
Mulder's jealously quickly dissipated though, when he vaguely recalled being
kissed goodnight on the back of his neck by Alex. So he had come home after
all.
The bathroom door was cracked open a couple of inches and Mulder stopped
there. He stood, with his arms folded across his chest silently peeking in
at Alex; watching his lover, the younger man completely unaware of the
audience.
Mulder's smile quickly turned into a frown when he realized what it was
Alex was looking at...
...Alex leaned forward and stared at himself in the mirror. The bruising
along his jaw was twice as dark as it had been just a few short hours ago
and the marks around his neck made it look like he and Mulder had been
playing rough games in the bedroom.
"Don't you dare cover that up." Mulder said when he saw that Alex about to
brush on the foam anyway. He stepped into the steamy bathroom and stood
right behind his lover.
The Russian's mouth formed a thin line and he dropped the brush back into
the stoneware mug and placed it back on the counter top. He turned around
and leaning back against the sink said to Mulder neutrally, "Busted."
Mulder's expression softened as he reached up to lightly stroke the
bruising. His caress was as soft as a down feather. As he dabbed at the
slightly swollen corner of Alex's mouth he asked, "Who did this?"
Alex shrugged. "I don't know."
"You're lying... I can tell. " Mulder said, growing angry again.
"No really... " Alex implored. He unconsciously opened his eyes up
wide, trying to convince Mulder that he was not lying. "...It was dark
and I didn't' see them... Him... "
"Him? Them? So it was two men then?"
"Don't interrogate me Fox. I said I didn't know who it was!"
"Oh, I know who it was... " Hissed Mulder. Furious, not at Alex, but at
whole the situation. He stormed away from his lover and headed for the
bedroom where he began to dress quickly.
Alex took the time to frown at himself in the mirror, then followed in
Mulder's angry wake.
Mulder had just pulled a long sleeve T-shirt over his head and yanked it
down when Alex put his hand on the man's arm. He paused.
"Fox please don't... don't make an issue of this. It's over now. It
doesn't matter anymore." There was no point in his pretending that he
didn't' know who had knocked him around. Mulder obviously knew.
Mulder took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "Yes Alex it does
matter. I'm getting tired of this shit. Skinner's got no right to hit you
and you had better believe that if it was you pushing Skinner around, Scully
would make a goddamned issue of it!" He walked away from Alex and opening
his top drawer he pulled out a pair of socks and pulled them on as Alex
spoke to him.
"He said we were even Fox. I believed him. Please... I don't need you
to protect or defend me. I can look after myself."
"I'm not protecting you. I'm defending us." Mulder said, tying his runners
up. He stood up and kissed Alex on the forehead. "I'll be right back.
Don't start the shower without me." He smiled reassuringly at his lover,
who was still wrapped in a towel and then turned around and calmly left the
apartment.
Alex stared after Mulder for a minute. "But I've already showered" he said
to Mulder's back. Shaking his head, he couldn't' decide if he was pissed
off because Mulder wouldn't' listen to him and let the matter drop or
pleased that Mulder wouldn't listen to him.
Alex went back to the bathroom and finished shaving, hoping that Skinner
wouldn't hold this against him too. But If he did, well this time Alex
would fight back, like Skinner had said, they were even.
As soon as he had the door closed, Mulder stormed down the hall right to
where Skinner lived. He pounded on the door with the side of his fist a few
times.
Wearing only a robe, Skinner opened the door and peeked out.
Mulder pushed the door open farther and grabbed the surprised, larger man.
He ran Skinner backwards until he was pinned against the far wall. With
two tightly clenched fistfuls of the Director's robe, Mulder shook Skinner a
few times then said malevolently, "If you ever... lay another hand on
Alex I'll kill you..."
"Mulder!" Yelled Scully from the bedroom doorway; shocked by his threat.
"Let him go. NOW!"
Skinner said nothing as Mulder looked back and forth between the two lovers.
Then he pushed Skinner again and let go of his robe. He stepped back and
Dana, in her robe too, went to stand beside her lover.
"Are you all right, Walter?" She asked.
He looked at her and patted her hand reassuringly. "I'm fine." He said,
still watching Mulder closely.
"I mean it." Mulder reiterated. "No more or were out of here."
"I told Krycek and now I'll tell you. Were even, him and I. All is
forgiven."
Scully turned to Skinner and asked him with surprise in her voice, "What?
What do you mean 'all is forgiven'?"
"I'll explain it to you later sweetheart." Skinner said, wrapping a
protective arm around her waist. "Don't upset yourself."
"I'm perfectly fine." She said evenly.
Mulder wondered why Skinner was worried about Scully getting upset. But he
pushed the thought aside, and said calmly, "I'll see you at the council
meeting in an hour." He turned around and stalked out of the Skinner
apartment. Using all of his will power not to invade Scully's thoughts. He
turned them instead to Alex and instantly his anger dissipated. Picking up
his steps, Mulder was suddenly anxious to be home and in the shower with his
love.
Briefing
Scully dropped the last report in her hand down in front of the empty chair
at the head of the table. Every where a person was to sit, there was a
neatly typed report containing her findings sitting in front of it.
Josh, from the armory, was the first to arrive. He smiled at her and said
cheerfully, "Good morning Doctor Scully."
"Morning Josh." She replied, giving the younger man a weak smile. Thinking
that it had in fact, been a rather shitty morning all the way around. She
took a sip from her coffee cup and wrinkled up her nose at the flavor.
Josh, witnessing the death of a good cup of coffee, gave Scully an amused
grin and then poured his own mug of the brew. His mood was light and
cheerful. Josh was happy because he knew that he would be seeing Alex again
today.
Eventually, everyone had arrived for the meeting, with the exceptions of
Mulder and Krycek. And all were seated except for Skinner and Josh, who
were discussing the low level of some supplies in the armory.
Both of the late men entered the room together and Skinner and Josh looked
up at the same time at them.
Josh immediately had a bright smile for Alex and Alex alone. His grin
soon faded however, when he saw that Alex had been beaten up again. He
silently wondered if it was Mulder who was leaving the marks on the older
man's handsome face. If so, then Josh thought that he should try to talk to
Alex about the violence displayed by Mulder.
Skinner had kept his expression smooth and even, but underlying it all was
guilt for the prominent bruising on Alex's. Revenge, had not tasted as
sweet as he thought it would.
"Morning Josh." Alex said, smiling back at the younger man.
"Hi Alex... " Josh said then as an after thought he added, "Good
morning, Mulder."
"Josh." Mulder replied cooly. Neither Alex nor Mulder greeted Skinner or
Scully.
"Okay." Scully said, "Were all here lets sit down and get started."
Alex pulled out a chair and sat in it and Josh quickly filled the empty seat
next to him, forcing Mulder to take a chair across the table from the two of
them.
Mulder frowned at Josh briefly but otherwise said nothing.
Alex saw the look on Mulder's face and hid his smile by rubbing his lips
with the back of his hand, giving a grimace when he accidently pushed on the
sore spot at the corner of his mouth. He found Josh's crush on him amusing,
as opposed to Mulder who of course just found it bothersome.
"Whose buttons am I pushing?" Josh asked innocently, wondering silently,
what had happened between the two lovers to make it not a good day for the
Russian.
Alex smiled and sat up straight. He genuinely like Josh—the former rookie
agent. The kid definitely knew what he wanted; him.
Though Josh was tactful enough not to directly interfere with the men's
relationship, he planned on continuing to flirt with Alex as long as Mulder
did not tell him to fuck off. Josh clung to the hope that maybe one day,
Alex Krycek would look twice at him. And Josh could wait for that day; he
had all the time in the world; now.
"Right." Scully said, and all the people around the table looked to her.
"This is what we've found out so far." She laid a transparent sheet on the
over head projector and began her lecture.
"Now in the course of our experiments, I came across one factor that most of
the people share in the shelter. Everyone with the exceptions of myself,
Walter Skinner, Fox Mulder, Samantha Mulder, the late Teena Mulder and
Krycek..."
No one but Mulder and Alex noticed that Scully purposely did not use Alex's
first name.
"...have a blood type that is a negative factor. Either A-, B- or AB-.
I think that's why some of the people survived, because of the negative RH
factor.
"But then wouldn't there have to be more people alive?" Josh asked. "The
surface seems so deserted."
"Actually... " Scully replied, "...Negative blood is extemely rare,
so if you consider that 55% of the world's population was the standard O+
and then break it down from there starting with B+ as the next most popular
then A+ after that. In actuality, only about 2% of the Earths population
is of a negative type of blood."
Alex spoke up, "Five billion to twenty-five million people in a matter of
days, and spread out over the globe... " He turned to Josh and said,
"...No wonder we so alone..." His voice was low and gravelly, the small
amount of the population that had survived, rattled him.
Scully nodded her head to Alex's comment but did not reply, she went on,
"Now the reason why Mrs. Mulder, Samantha Mulder and I weren't infected by
'purity' is because we all have or had a chip implanted in our bodies."
She passed a small microchip inside a glass vial around, "That was Teena
Mulder's." Scully said, her voice remorseful.
He cleared his throat and said, "The oil that infected me left my body
voluntarily. As a reward for being such a good host, when I expelled it, it
left an imprint behind, giving me a natural immunity."
"It told you that?" Asked Scully skeptically.
"No. More like it left the memory of its gift in my brain, like a post
hypnotic suggestion."
"So when you took me to Tunguska that time, you knew I would be infected
then vaccinated making me immune?" Mulder asked from across the table.
"Yes." Alex replied. "I was trying to save your life in a round about way.
We knew even back then that the colonists couldn't be trusted. Too bad I
was right."
Before Mulder could respond, Scully interrupted. "Well that would explain
why you're both immune the oil. And as for Walter, his body was invaded by
advanced nanite technology and for some reason I can't explain, the virus
was unable to take control inside of him."
"That's because, " Alex spoke up again, "...the nanites are stronger and
smarter than the virus. Skinner is their host and they are sentient beings,
completely aware. Therefore, they would protect their host from anyone or
anything attempting to invade it." Alex looked down the table at Skinner
and said, "I bet you haven't had so much as a cold since being infected"
"No. I haven't." Skinner replied, he had never really thought about it
before, but now that he did, Alex was right. No colds, flue or any other
communicable diseases and or virus's.
"That's because they won't allow anything potentially harmful in."
Mulder knew that it was Alex who had done the 'nano' thing to Skinner and
that Skinner had known it all along. But both men had refused to talk it,
or about the months leading up to the invasion. He only knew that at some
point Krycek and Skinner worked together then the whole world went to hell
and Alex disappeared. Skinner told Mulder that, that was all behind them
now that it didn't matter and he didn't want to talk about it.
"So basically, you saved my life too." Skinner said blandly.
Alex shrugged uncomfortable with the others staring at him, expectantly.
"Unintentionally at the time,...yes."
Scully snapped her head to glare at Alex, Skinner saw the look and realized
that he had just let the cat out of the bag. "I'll talk to you later Dana."
Skinner said gently.
Ever the professional, Scully nodded in agreement and then went on with her
findings. After another half hour she concluded by saying, "So to
summarize, everyone who survived the virus naturally has a negative factor
blood type. Using Mulder's and Krycek's altered blood samples and the
unchanged samples of the other's here, the gunmen and I have cooked up a
virus of our own. One that we are going to give to the greys and the rebels
to see if we can't kill them back. Skinner will brief those selected for
the mission on the details. For now, are there any other questions?"
A few people at the table clarified some of the facts for themselves then as
everyone stood to leave, Skinner said, "Josh, Davis, Mulder, Krycek and the
gunmen can stay behind." Those who were not named filed out.
And Scully and Skinner talked quietly in the corner of the boardroom.
"Why do you encourage him?" Mulder asked Alex, standing close beside him.
Alex grinned over the rim of his coffee cup and said evenly, "I don't
encourage him. Were friends, nothing more. It's just because you have an
emotional interest vested in me that you see his every word and gesture as a
'play' for me. When in fact, it's not."
Mulder nodded his head and poured a cup of the stale brew for himself.
"Well... " He drawled, "...when you put it like that... it makes
sense."
"Besides,..." Alex added, "...he's winding you up and he knows
it." Alex laughed and then Mulder joined him. He knew that Alex would
never betray him again. So what was the harm? He pecked Alex on the lips
quickly then they sat back down, waiting Skinner to get on with the mission
brief.
This time, Josh sat across the table from Alex, even though there was an
empty chair on the other side of Alex. But now was not the time to fool
around, it was time to be serious.
Scully gathered up her stuff, getting ready to leave, she had a lot of work
to do in preparing for the next mission. As she was walking out, she
stopped by Mulder's chair and leaning down she said to him in his ear, "Can
I talk to you later? Alone?"
"Sure." Mulder said. "Where?"
"Come to the med. lab when you're done here. That's where I'll be."
"Okay." He said and then Scully was gone.
"All right." Skinner said, looking at the men seated around the table.
"While Dana prepares the vaccine, I want to discuss possible ways of
administering it. I was thinking of forming two teams of two or three
people and while one team takes on the rebels the other can go after the
greys. The gunmen have found what they believe to be a grey nursery at the
top of Skyland Mountain."
The three geeks grinned smugly, pleased with themselves and their find.
"And of course we know where there's a rebel base. If..." Skinner looked
at Alex, "...they haven't moved." He said raising his eyebrows in
silent questioning.
Alex shook his head "No. They wouldn't have relocated just because one test
subject got away." He shook his head again, "I'm completely irrelevant when
it comes to the big picture."
"Okay then. Let's decide on the teams."
"I don't' think that will work." Alex cut in. All the faces around the
table focused in on him, waiting for him to speak. "It would be better..." He explained, "...if one volunteer went in alone. Believe me one
person could slip by undetected but not three."
"Three of us got in before." Bill Davis stated.
"Yes, but most of the aliens on board the ships were soldiers and were out
on a raid at the time. Minimal personnel were left behind to guard the
fort. You surprised them once. We won't be so lucky again."
Skinner contemplated Alex words, "What do you suggest then?" He asked
finally.
Alex sipped his coffee and said, "Like I said, you need one operative...
me... to go in..."
"WHAT?" Exclaimed both Mulder and Josh at the same time.
Alex held up his hand to silence both the older and younger man. "Listen..." He said sensibly, "I already know a way I can sneak into the rebel
ship undetected and from my covert point of entry, the area where the rebels
rejuvenate is not very far from that. I would have a chance of catching the
whole goddamned nest of them by surprise.
"But weren't you captured on the same ship before?" Byers asked.
"Yes, but that was while I was trying to steal the EBE from the
cryo-chambers. Which was clear across the craft from where I had originally
entered."
"Oh, I see." Byers said, nodding his head.
"Alex, it's too dangerous for you to go alone. I won't allow it.." Mulder
said.
"Oh, you won't will you?" Alex responded sarcastically.
"Mulder. Let's just listen to what Krycek has to say and then we will
decide if it's to dangerous to proceed." Skinner said, trying to stop an
argument before it got started.
Josh looked at Mulder amazed that he actually agreed on something with the
older agent. He didn't want Alex risking his safety on his account.
However, he wisely remained silent on the subject.
Alex's glare softened, "I appreciate the sentiment, Fox, but hear me out... please..." He turned away and looking at Josh he said, "You too..."
"Right then..." He started, "...after a cycle of 24 hours every
alien has to shut down for a minimum of four hours to 'rejuvenate' their
systems. Which are actually quite delicate. Only about ten guards will be
on a different rest cycle from the majority. They will keeping an eye on
the base. Now Mulder and Davis know how big that ship is, so with only ten
guards, I should be relatively safe from discovery. There will be four
shape shifters walking the perimeter on the outside and six on the inside.
"Sounds good Alex but I don't think you should go alone." Mulder said.
"I agree with Mulder." Josh piped in. Mulder looked across the table at
the younger man. "One person should go with you just in case. Even if they
stay behind hidden off the ship."
Mulder hated to admit it, but he was right. "I'll go with you." Mulder
said.
"Me too." Volunteered Josh.
Exasperated, Alex flopped his head over so that his forehead rested against
the cool formica table top. He brought his gaze up and said frustrated, "I
need to go alone or the mission could be lost. The more people there are
the likely hood of discovery increases."
"But..." Davis interjected, then the three gunmen tried to put their
two cents worth in and soon all of the men around the table were talking at
once, each of them giving an opinion and Alex trying to defend his
suggestions.
"Shut up!" Skinner yelled, instantly quieting the men. "Here's the deal.
Krycek you'll go into both ships and administer the vaccine." Alex smiled
triumphantly but his victory was short lived, "And Davis will go with you
to watch your back. But he will stay out of the ships as suggested."
"Okay." Davis agreed. "Me and Krycek it is."
Both Mulder and Josh scowled, each of them had wanted to be the one to
accompany Alex. Mulder said as much as did Josh.
But Skinner silenced them by saying, "You're both needed here, besides, for
obvious reasons, neither on of you can go. All right. You're all dismissed
except for Krycek and Davis, we'll take the time and go through some of the
finer details now. Josh, you go and get whatever arms you think they will
need, ready. Mulder go to the med. lab and help Dana prepare the vaccine
and other emergency supplies. Frohicke, Byers, and Langley, you double
check the information. Make sure Krycek and Davis have a map to the Skyland
Mountain ship." The men who had been told to leave did, and the ones told
to stay sat on either side of Skinner and worked out the logistics of the
mission.
"Scully." Mulder called out, standing in the middle of the deserted lab and
looking around. He heard a toilet flush somewhere behind him and then a tap
turn on. A few seconds later, Scully emerged from the washroom. She was
wiping her forehead with a wet piece of paper towel. "You feeling okay?"
He asked her.
Not realizing that she was no longer alone, Scully jumped when Mulder spoke.
"Jesus, you scared me." She said as she put a hand up to her pounding
heart. "I'm fine. Just a bug I think." She replied, a secret smile
playing about her full mouth.
Curious as to what she wanted to talk to him about Mulder asked, "So what
did you want to see me about."
The smile faded from her face, she licked her lips and gestured toward a
stool. "Why don't you sit?" She offered.
"Okay?" He said slowly, growing. "I'm sitting. What's up?"
"Well..." She hesitated.
"Scully, whatever it is just spit it out or else I'll reach in and find out
what it is my self." Mulder threatened.
"No. Don't you dare read my thoughts!" She scolded. "All right, here
goes. While I was studying the groups blood samples, I came across some
interesting facts. Like I mentioned earlier, you and Krycek have the same
blood type. Which got me to thinking... You're both six feet tall or
over respectively, both have green eyes, dark brown hair and moles,
ironically enough on the right sides of your cheeks. It just struck me as
peculiar that you have the same blood type and share the same colouring in
the eyes and hair, the same physical traits too. Even moles and freckles
are hereditary."
Scully waved her hand, she was getting off track, "So I took the liberty
and did a DNA smear. And from what the preliminary results say, you're... er... related. Brothers in fact." She looked at Mulder expectantly
but his face was curiously expressionless.
"You did a DNA stain without my permission just because Alex and I have
similar builds and brown hair?" He was mad that Scully had taken it upon
herself, once again, to meddle into his business. "You had no right to do
that." He stated firmly.
Scully stared at Mulder, incredulous, his reaction to her revelation was not
what she had expected at all. "Mulder. Did you even hear a word I said? I
just told you that you've been having an intimate relationship with your
biological brother and you give me grief over the fact that I didn't have
the permission to do the stain!?" Her vivid blue eyes were wide with shock...
Mulder stood up and keeping his temper and voice in check said, "Both Alex
and I know of our blood ties. My mother revealed it to us shortly before
she died."
Scully glared hard at the man she thought she knew. "Jesus Christ Mulder.
What the hell is wrong with you? You and Krycek have been fucking each
other and the whole time both of you knew! God Mulder,"
Scully spit, disgusted with her former partner and how much he had changed
or rather how much Alex Krycek had changed him.
"That's just sick! Of all the twisted... perverted... depraved..." She sputtered out adjectives.
Mulder interrupted her, "Be that as it may Scully." The tone of his voice
immediately shut her up. It was calm, and even with an icy edge to it.
"Alex and my relationship is none of your business. Only Alex, I and my
mother knew. And now you... No one else. Since you took our blood
under the guise of performing tests,... which makes you our physician...
I expect you to maintain patient/doctor confidentiality in this matter."
Then he spun on his heel and stalked out of the lab. Leaving Scully to
stare after his angry wake. His instructions to help her, forgotten.
A few hours later, back in their room, Mulder and Alex cuddled together
closely. Their love making had been intense and very involved. Culminating
with Mulder declaring passionately, "I love Alex, I always have." Loudly as
he climaxed deep inside of his lover.
Pulling Mulder down to his face and kissing him deeply, Alex said in return,
"I love you too, Fox... Forever." Then he went back to sharing his
tongue with and accepting Mulder's back in return. The kiss between them
lasted them a very long time.
Now they were laying entwined around each other, just a few short hours
before Alex was to leave. Both men tried to get some sleep, but it would
not come easily, to either of them.
The next morning
As Alex dressed in his fatigues, Mulder tried to one more time to talk Alex
out of going onto the ships alone.
"I'm sneaking on board by my self... It's just safer that way." He
replied exasperated by Mulder's worry for him. He pulled a leather gun
holster over his shoulders and fitted it tightly over his white T-shirt.
"Safer for whom? You or Davis?" Mulder asked, watching his lover do the
velcro straps of the holster up.
"For Davis of course. I'm expendable." Alex said matter of fact, fastening
a second leather holster for another side arm around his right thigh.
"Davis isn't. Besides no one likes me here any ways." He adjusted a strap
that was at the top of his knee.
Frowning Mulder said, "That's not true and you know it."
Tucking his T-shirt back in Alex said without looking up, "Yes it is."
Reaching out Mulder stopped Alex from his fiddling and holding him by the
shoulders said to him directly, "Your life means something to me and to
Samantha." He kissed Alex on the lips and said, "Besides, the girls in the
veggie beds like you... and so does Josh, much to my chagrin... "
Alex smiled softly at that. He reached up and peeled Mulder's hands from
his shoulders and holding them tightly within his own, he said, "Yeah well,
. . . everyone likes me but the one person who counts... " He gave
Mulder's cold hands a squeeze to reassure him. He had no idea that Mulder
and Scully had had angry words about their relationship.
"Don't worry what Scully thinks..." Mulder started to say, but Alex cut
him off with another kiss.
"I don't want to talk about Scully right now." He said. "I want you to
promise me while I'm gone you will answer Sam's letter. Maybe if she asks,
go and see her. This will,..." Alex hesitated for a second, "...
this will be a good time for you two to reconnect. Trust me, she wants to
see you, she's just afraid, that's all."
Mulder studied Alex eyes, "I will." He said finally. "I promise I'll write
back to her." He pulled Alex close and hugged him. He was so afraid for
Alex's safety that he didn't want to let him go.
He was not as concerned for Davis, who would be hanging back and hiding in
the bushes. It was Alex who would be taking all of he risks.
"Listen Fox... I love you..." Alex whispered huskily. "For as long
as I could remember, I've been in love with you. All that stuff I did
before the holocaust..." He pulled back a bit and looked into Mulder
eyes, "Betraying you, I never wanted to hurt you that way... ever..."
"God Alex, you sound like your not planning on coming back." Mulder was
alarmed by Alex's fatalistic attitude. "Promise me you'll return."
Alex smiled softly. The fine lines around his eyes crinkled and fanned out.
"I will... If I can... or I'll die trying. And if that happens then
I will have repaid my debt to society." He grabbed Mulder and kissed him
roughly. "Don't come to the last briefing in the armory. Okay?" He
reluctantly pulled himself out of Mulder's warm arms and finished putting on
the rest of his gear. He would fill his two holsters with guns from the
armory, just before departing. "I wanted our goodbye to be private, just
between us."
"Okay." Mulder agreed reluctantly. "In that case..." He said as he
sank to his knees in front of Alex and started to undo the buttons on his
pants.
"What are you doing?" Alex questioned. "You don't' have to do that!" His
hands went to Mulder's and tried to push them away.
But Mulder was deaf to Alex protests as he pulled Alex's semi erection out
and over the top of the Russian's plain black boxer briefs. The amorous
agent didn't even bother with pulling Alex's pants down. He looked up and
said playfully, "It sure feels like you want me to do this." Then he
swallowed the throbbing organ down greedily.
Alex hissed his pleasure, quit protesting and tangled his fingers in Mulders
short, silky hair.
Mulder had Alex pinned to the wall that was behind him. He held him there,
perfectly still, by pushing firmly against his hips with the heals of his
hands. Mulder's fingers extended around Alex's narrow waist. And he used
only his mouth in which to get Alex off with.
The whole blow job felt so illicit, so daring for Alex. Especially when
Mulder was fully clothed and on his knees before him. The only skin that
was bared was the flesh of his cock, he felt so exposed and so vulnerable to
Mulder and his talented mouth.
And Mulder, in response to Alex reactions, could feel his own cock rising
in response to his lovers thrashing and moaning.
After about only two minutes, the last minute thrill of an unplanned blow
job worked its magic. Alex's body stiffened and his finges squeezed
Mulder's hair tighter as he shot his cum right down Mulder's willing throat.
Still on his knees' Mulder swallowed all that Alex had to give, something
that he'd never done before. And when younger man's erection began to ebb,
the kneeling agent released him.
Standing up, Mulder drew Alex in close for another kiss. He stuck his
tongue inside of Alex's lush mouth and gave the spent man a taste his own
unique essence.
"Mmm. Fox." Alex said when he finally gained his composure. "That was
great."
Smiling, Mulder replied, "I know." Than on a more serious note he said,
"That was just a taste of what's to come. So you had better take care of
yourself out there and return to me in one piece... safely."
"I'll be careful Fox. I promise." He hugged and kissed his lover goodbye
one last time. "See you in a week." He said, just before walking out.
After he had gone, Mulder sat down and thought, What am I going to
do for a whole seven days while he's away?
Remembering the promise that he had made, Mulder pulled out a pad of paper
and a pen and began to write a letter back to his sister.
Maybe Alex was right, Mulder thought, without any distractions around him,
this would be the prefect opportunity to get to know Samantha again.
The Armory
"Okay Alex." Josh said. "That's all the weaponry you should need." He
smiled proudly at the Russian and then added, "Except for one extra special
piece that I made you."
Intrigued, Alex asked, "What did you make?"
"Well after the briefing yesterday, I thought that if you could somehow
'trank' the Aliens from a distance, the chances of you would getting killed
would decrease dramatically. Exspecially since the alternative is to fight
them with hand to hand combat. Trying to stick those big faceless buggers
in the back of the neck with a pick can't be an easy thing to do." He
smiled and handed Alex the modified shot gun that he had made. The nose
and butt had been cut off of the gun.
"Wow." Alex said turning the gun over in his hands, impressed with Josh's
ingenuity. No wonder the younger agent had made it through the rigorous
training at FBI Academy so easily. Alex gripped the stubby shot gun tightly
and looking up he asked, "What do I do with it?"
With his voice full of pride, Josh answered, "Dr. Scully and I loaded the
vaccine into some empty one dose needles, you know, the kind where the
medicine is drawn into the body as soon as it penetrates the skin?" Alex
nodded, he knew which ones' Josh meant.
"Then I modified these shotgun shells." Josh picked up a box of blue buck
shot shells. "And I put the darts into them so all you have to do is shoot
the aliens... " Josh mimicked firing a shot gun and said grinning, "...from a safe distance.
And BOOM! They're dead and you're not."
"Good thinking Josh." Alex praised, secretly pleased that he didn't have to
go one on one with an alien. He would have if he had to, but nonetheless he
was still glad to have the option.
"Here, hold the gun under your right pit with this." Josh was holding a
long piece of leather thong that resembled a boot lace.
Now Alex knew what the garrote was made of that Sparks had used on him.
Josh made a loop and tied an intricate knot then pushed it up and over
Alex's arm to his shoulder. His fingers caressed the smooth flesh over
Alex's large biceps muscle, and his task was instantly forgotten. Josh
stared dreamily up at Alex for a few seconds. Then, without realizing what
he was really doing, the younger man stood up on his toes and kissed Alex on
the mouth.
"Oh my God... I can't believe I just did that... I'm so sorry Alex."
The younger man honestly looked horrified, and Alex had to smile. "It's
okay Josh." He said to him. "Once is an impulse, twice means you're trying
to instigate something." He raised an eyebrow at the younger man, "You get
my drift?"
Josh did. In other words, don't kiss him again, this one time would be
forgiven but not the next. "Listen, I feel really stupid for doing that."
His cheeks burned red with humiliation.
"Don't worry about it Josh. But I have to tell you that Mulder and I are
solid. I don't want to lead you on. You and I are friends, good friends,
but nothing more."
Josh was heartbroken, but he tried not to show it. He gave Alex a shaky
smile and nodded. If that's what Alex had to offer him then he would accept
it gladly.
"In fact Josh." Alex said hanging the modified shotgun from the thong, he
looked up, "You're my only friend."
"Well in that case," Josh said smoothly, "Here's some friendly advice.
Load in six of the shells now and stow the rest close by in a side pocket."
Luckily the army pants Alex wore had many pockets of assorted sizes in order
for him to hide things in. After some shuffling of various items, he
managed to tuck away the box of shells in a pocket at the side of his hip.
Scully, Skinner and Bill Davis all walked into the armory together. And
Josh immediately got to work outfitting Davis with his preferred weaponry
and ammunition. Helping the older man to stash his stuff away like he had
done for Alex.
"Here's the syringes." Skinner said showing Alex six large needles, filled
with a deep, amber coloured liquid. All six syringes were inside a wooden
case and fit side by side to each other snugly.
In response, Alex flapped opened his jacket and flashed Skinner and Scully
the gun that was hanging loosly under his right armpit.
As Josh balanced Davis' knapsack, Scully gave her instructions to Alex.
Alex nodded his head in understanding and zipped up his jacket. He stuffed
the camera into a pocket at the side of his coat.
"Okay..." Skinner said, "...just to be on the safe side, there will
be no radio contact until after the greys are done. Right?"
Both Alex and Davis said "Right." Together.
"Do the rebels in Baltimore first, then the greys on Skyland. Stick to
the plan and if all goes well, we'll see you here in a week. Do you have
enough weapons?" Skinner asked.
Josh was now helping Alex to shrug on his own heavy back pack.
"Yes." The Russian confirmed settling the weight so it was comfortable.
"Christ Walter. I'm so heavily armed I've practically got a goddamned knife
hidden up my ass!" Davis quipped, smiling at the ribald joke.
Josh quit fiddling with the flaps of Alex's pack and said straight faced to
Scully and Skinner, "Well don't look at me, I didn't put it there." He
grinned and Alex laughed out loud along with Bill Davis.
"If were not back in two weeks, were probably dead." Alex said seriously.
"Don't bother with sending out a search party. It'll just be a waste of
valuable manpower."
"Speak for yourself Krycek. Come looking for me at least." Davis replied
seriously to Skinner.
"Don't worry old man." Josh said patting Davis on his weather worn cheek.
"If you're overdue longer than twenty-four hours we'll send out the hounds
to look for you."
"Well that's good to know. Now, who are you calling old?"
"You..."
"All right," Skinner said breaking up Josh and Davis' repartee. "Just
come back on time." He directed that comment to Alex. "Because if you're
gone longer than the 24-hour window, Mulder will come looking for you
himself, come hell or high water. Regardless of the weather conditions."
The fall weather was rapidly turning into winter like conditions. Which
was good because the aliens did not like the cold that much and the
activities for both warring factions would decrease dramatically. He
clapped Alex then Bill amicably on the shoulder.
Alex was surprised by Skinner and his non combative tone. He looked up at
Skinner who said simply, "I meant what I said the other night."
Josh and Davis looked at each other, they had no idea what was going on
though Josh suspected that it had something to do with the bruises Alex was
sporting. Josh had finally found the courage to ask Alex what had happened,
but the Russian simply evaded the question by abruptly changing the subject.
Josh had just assumed that it had been Mulder who had hit him, now it
sounded more like that it was Skinner's handiwork that marked Alex.
Josh shrugged, if it was a big deal Alex probably would have said something
to him. Besides, there was nothing he could do about it any ways.
Scully went up to Alex and handed him a small white tablet that was sealed
in a single blister pack. She gave one to Davis too. The men looked at
her, curious.
"Pharmaceutical cyanide." Scully said. "Just in case. Hide it somewhere
where you can get at it."
"In case of what?" Davis asked dryly.
"You never know, but it's better to have the option." She said.
Alex raised his eyebrow then stashed the pill in an inner pocket. He
couldn't help but think that Scully was secretly wishing he'd have to take
that option.
Skinner opened the door that led to another door that led to the surface.
"Be careful." He said to the men before slamming the heavy steal home.
Alex heard it lock behind him and then he and Davis were alone in the
dark.
Part V
Krycek pushed the plunger down and within seconds, a lethal dose of the
amber antidote was carried away via the main umbilical chord.
The ungestated alien fetuses' were growing inside of alien manufactured
wombs that were egg shaped and made of a clear plexiglass type of material.
Row upon row of large-eyed, big headed, alien babies convulsed then died
inside of their warm tanks.
Alex tossed the used needle aside and pulled the small cam corder out from
his pocket. Flicking it on, he began to film the fetus's when they began
to expire. As the premature aliens fought for life, Alex gave a monologue,
starting with the standard date and time to go with the pictures he was
filming.
Davis and he had been very patient, taking their time in finding a way onto
the ship.
Alex had finally snuck on board by first killing a grey; using one of his
antidote filled bullets. He bent squatted down next to the dead alien and
carefully gouged out the grey's over sized right eyed. He gently laid the
eye on the frozen ground and proceeded to hack off the aliens left index
finger at the fifth knuckle.
It was as easy as that.
From that point on, Alex was alone on board. First, he had to hunt down
all of the grown greys on board and dispose them off. It took him just
under a half hour to successfully find all of the brainy beings—about 15
in all—and kill them.
These particular recordings he did with Josh and the three geeks in mind,
thinking that they may spot something useful.
After that, he found his way to the nursery and proceeded to exterminated
all of the unearthly ones unborn. Alex felt absolutely no guilt, or
remorse for his actions. After all he was fighting a war and all was fair.
Besides the greys had no compunctions about committing global genocide
against the human race.
Finally, when the last unborn grey finished twitching Alex shut the camera
off and got to work setting up the plastique charges. Once that was done,
he abandoned the ship and when he met up with Davis, started the timer to
the sophisticated bombs . The two of them were about three kilometers'
away before the entire spacecraft blew up; just like the rebel's ship in
Baltimore had.
"Well... Our work here appears to be done." Davis quipped.
"Yep." Agreed Alex.
"Let's go home." Davis said.
"Actually Bill. I have a favor to ask." Alex said innocently.
"What kind of plot are you hatching now?" Davis asked, eyeing his younger
companion suspiciously.
"Why? What do you want from your apartment?" The older man quizzed.
"Some personal effects." Krycek said easily. Which was true, but what he
really wanted to retrieve was the palm controller for the nanites that
existed inside of Skinner. He wanted to hand over the miniature computer
to Skinner so that he could be in control of the presently dormant
creatures.
"Okay." Davis shrugged, he was enjoying the cold crisp air of the surface.
"Great." Alex said smiling again, pleased that Davis had agreed to the
extra excursion.
The two men found their ATV's that they had hidden and continued with their
trek, looking for an ideal place to stop for the night. Both of them were
unaware that several pairs of human eyes. Initially brought out by the
explosion, those eyes were now following and watching them.
The watchers had decided to wait and take the two men after night had
fallen, when they would be the most vulnerable.
Bill sat on one log and Alex sat on another across the fire from him. The
night was crisp and clear, the large blaze Alex had built kept the chill at
bay. The older man sipped his coffee in silence and watched Krycek from
underneath veiled lids.
While Alex stared hypnotically into the bright orange-red flames, he was
absently turning his steel coffee mug slowly around and around in the palms
of his hands. Davis didn't know what Alex was thinking about but he assumed
it was Mulder.
It was no secret to Davis, or anyone else at the bunker for that matter,
that the two former agents were a couple.
Davis sighed heavily, suddenly missing his wife. She had been one of the
first to die, back when the government claimed it was nothing more a nasty
flu virus running amok. He sighed again and said a silent prayer for his
wife's soul. He couldn't have been more wrong about what was on Krycek's
mind.
Alex was studying the dancing flames and thinking not about his lover Fox
Mulder, but about his half-sister Samantha. He was conflicted with her ever
knowing about his real relationship to her and Fox. The more he
thought about it, the better off he figured she would be not knowing the
truth. She had enough stuff to try and work through, Alex did not want to
add to her problems.
That night, Alex had laid himself open by revealing the truth, exposing the
ugliness of not only his life, but of his soul.
The Russian had not spared even the tiniest of details, and when he was done
confessing, Mulder had pulled him in close said simply, "Never again."
Alex wasn't exactly sure what his lover had meant by that, but he some how
felt comforted by it nonetheless.
The love making Alex and Mulder had made after Alex's disclosure had been
unhurried and exceptionally tender; with the session lasting most of the
night.
Alex smiled as he remembered the loving making that night.
Davis tossed the remnants in the bottom of his coffee cup into the bush,
breaking Alex's spellbound musings and making him look up.
A fine spray of arcing blood hit Alex in the face and sent a spray pattern
of the rich crimson liquid up the front of his unzipped jacket and T-shirt.
Davis looked to Alex with startled eyes confusion crossed his face briefly
as the steel mug fell from his hand. He blinked twice slowly, then the
lights went out of the experienced agent's big brown eyes for ever.
Alex just stared at Bill, from the time the arrow came through his throat to
his falling over dead, all of it, as seen through Alex's eyes, seemed to be
happening in slow motion.
In actuality it had only been seconds.
Shaking off his astonishment, Alex rolled backwards over the log and while
he tumbled over he drew his side arm. Alex popped upright, his ass on the
frozen ground and his back against the log with his gun ready and pointed
toward the black woods. He sat there listening intently, trying to look into
the bushes near him where he could hear voices. But the brightness of the
fire made it impossible for him to see into the dense foliage.
"Give it up handsome." A deep, southern voice drawled from the darkness.
"You're surrounded."
From the corner of his eye, Alex saw a darkened outline of a figure stirring
in the bushes. Forever an assassin, he automatically turned and fired,
hitting the emerging target. The Russian's aim was true, he killed the
faceless assailant instantly. Alex watched as the man dropped to the ground
like a sack of grain.
Immediately after that Alex felt a sting at the side of his neck. He put
his hand up automatically to slap at whatever it was that had caused the
pain. Alex's hand came away and he stared down at a small dart laying
harmlessly on the pads of his fingertips.
"Get him up boys." Instructed Clint, the leader of the group.
As Bruce and J.R, two members of the small group, started to get their
unconscious captive ready for travel another two other men, Skeeter and
Harley set about quickly packing up the campsite. They left Bill Davis's
body behind—barely covered in a shallow grave—to the mercy of the
elements and wildlife.
Clint grabbed a handful of Alex's hair and reefed the limp head up.
"Pretty. Very pretty." He drawled. "Let's get a move on." The troop
moved on, taking the unconscious Alex, all of his gear, and the man that he
had shot dead with them.
"Wake'em up Harley." Clint instructed. He had noticed that Alex was
starting to come around, Clint glanced at his watch, it was time for the
drug to start wearing off.
Harley, another southerner, approached Alex and tossed a small glass of cold
water into the Russians face, rousing him completely.
Alex snorted then shook the water drops off of his face. His eyes were
blinking rapidly, trying to clear themselves of the blurriness. He
immediately discovered that he was handcuffed from behind when he tried to
bring his hands up to wipe away the water.
So his person had not been molested while he was out of it.
Though Alex thought that judging by the wide-eyed lust filled stares he was
receiving from the strange men standing around him, it wasn't a matter of
if they were going to use him sexually but when.
"What am I doing here?" Alex husked, his throat dry.
Clint squatted down in front of Alex at the head of the mattress and said,
"I would think that's obvious Mr."
Alex licked his cracked lips, so he was here for their pleasure. For a
minute he had hoped that he might merely be a hostage in a plot to exhort
arms or something from the shelter. "You can't do this you know. Hold me
against my will."
Clint smiled. "Oh no? Why can't we? Your traveling companion is dead, ...you're defenseless." His swept his eyes over Alex's face and torso.
Alex kept the pain of Davis's death safely buried inside, his face was a
featureless, icy mask of calm. "If I'm not back..." Alex swallowed,
trying to wet his mouth, "...within 24 hours of when you kidnaped me, an
armed search party will come looking for me." Bullshit he knew, but maybe
it would work.
"Oh yeah? Well I heard you tell that old guy that you were straying from
the beaten path. You don't' even know where you are. So how is
your armed search party gonna' find you?" The younger man reached
out to caress Alex's whisker stubbled cheek, but Alex pulled back avoiding
the man's touch. Clint croaked out a laughed, "Oh you are a cold fish...
Arnt'ya..."
"Keep your fucking hands off of me!" Hissed Alex. Knowing all the while
that his warning was useless. It was five against one, which wouldn't be so
bad except for the hand cuffs. All he could do was to fight them as hard as
he could, endure what they had to dish out and then wait for an opportunity
for escape to arise.
Clint laughed and was joined in by the other four men, all of them younger
than Alex, ranging in ages from 20 to 29. "Gimme' a knife Skeeter." He
said, not taking his eyes off of his captive.
The man named Skeeter was a handsome twenty year old with red hair and blue
eyes. He fished into his back pocket and pulled out a Swiss army knife. He
stepped up to the bed and crouched down next to Clint. Skeeter was the
youngest of the group, therefore he was the one the others screwed the most.
The red-head liked the look of the handcuffed older man. He couldn't wait
to be the dominant one, to turn the green-eyed captive over and make him the
victim; doing to the prisoner what the others had been doing to him for
months. Skeeter handed the knife over to Clint.
Alex could clearly see the longing in Skeeter's eyes.
Licking his lips in a predatory manner, Skeeter ran a daring hand down
Alex's jean-covered thigh. "I'd like to see what's underneath these." He
commented.
"Me too." Echoed J.R.
Like Clint and Skeeter, J.R was another southerner.
J.R came over and stood beside Skeeter, lechery and hunger for a warm, fresh
body swimming in his eyes too.
Another man, Bruce, stood on the other side of J.R, he said nothing at all,
but simply stared like he was a starving man and Alex was the Easter goose.
Alex darted his eyes at all five men. He did not like his odds of walking
out of the place unscathed.
"What's the matter?" The Russian fumed, uncaring of the repercussions his
sarcastic words would bring to him. "Can't find a woman on the account
you're all so ugly!" He knew the men would do what they wanted to, to him,
regardless.
Clint reached out and grabbed Alex by the hair on the back of his head. "We
used to have ourselves a lady, her name was Alice, pretty 'thang too. But
we up and fucked her to death four months ago." Clint pulled Alex's face
close and kissed him savagely.
By now all of the others were kneeling down by the mattress too, watching
Clint kiss Alex; like blackbirds on a telephone wire.
Unwilling to be taken without a good fight, Alex struck out. He bit Clint's
lip so hard that he took a chunk of it with him when Clint pushed him away
from himself. The bitten man rolled around the floor in pain.
Alex spit the piece of flesh back at its owner, who was busy yelling slurred
obscenities and threats at him. Along with the fatty tissue, Alex made sure
hit Clint in the face with a mouth full of his own blood.
Clint put his hand to his damaged mouth trying to staunch the flow of blood.
An instant after biting Clint, Alex stretched out his right leg and kicked
the man named Harley, who was at the end of the mattress, right in the face.
He heard the cartilage crunch and Alex knew that he had broken the man's
acne-scarred nose.
"Get him." Clint instructed, lisping his words because his mouth was
swollen.
In the resulting melee, Alex had managed to slip one of the handcuffs by
dislocating his right thumb. It was a small trick taught to him by his
instructors when he was still a boy at the orphanage.
For once, Alex praised growing up in the cursed place.
Alex's bid for freedom however, was very short lived. As soon as he had
made it to his knees the other three men, Bruce, J.R and Skeeter swarmed
him. Alex fought them hard, fighting them off everything with he had but
the lingering effects of the knock out drugs slowed down reflexes.
"Hold him tight." J.R. instructed to the other two.
Skeeter had managed to stretch Alex's arms painfully backwards above his
head and held them there by pinning his wrists with his knees. He pulled a
handcuff key out of his front pocket and undid the metal bracelet that Alex
had escaped from.
"Put it back on and tighten them this time." Instructed J.R in charge now
that Clint was administering first aid to each himself and Harley.
The red-head grinned and squeezed both cuffs around Alex wrists so tight
that there wasn't even enough room for a child's pinky finger between the
flesh and the steel.
J.R pulled on a large chain that was laying on the floor at the head of the
mattress. One end of the heavy link was anchored to the hard wood floor
three feet away from the mattress and the other end he pad locked to a
centre link on the handcuffs.
Only when Alex's arms were safely secured did Skeeter get up. Clint
murmured something to him, and then he left the room.
"You sons of bitches!" Alex swore. "You'll for this." He yanked and pulled
on the chain that held his arms over his head, heedless of the fact that he
was bruising his wrists and rubbing the skin off. He tried to lash out
using his powerful lets but the fifth thug, Bruce was sitting on them. The
heavy set man clamped them down firmly against the mattress.
This seemed to amuse the group watching over him to no end. Which angered
the Russian even more. Finally, Skeeter returned and in his hand was a
two-by-four that had been cut down to three feet. Attached at each end of
the plain length of wood was a thick leather cuff, brown and unlined, about
three inches in width. With a practiced hand, Skeeter quickly stripped off
Alex's wool socks and pulled his bare ankles far apart while Bruce
controlled his wildly bucking legs. Skeeter locked Alex's narrow ankles
into the cuffs; pulling and belting the rough leather just as tightly as he
had done with the handcuffs.
"Arrrghh..." Alex screamed. In Russian he yelled, "You bastards!
You're dead!" Then for their benefit he yelled in English, " I'll kill all
of you!"
Bruce stood up, Alex was now totally tractable and at the mercy of the five
sex-starved men; two of them pissed off enough to hurt him seriously.
Clint and Harley finished cleaning their wounds and approached the mattress,
the whole group went back to staring at the red faced, yelling Alex .
"You gotta' be able to get off of that bed in order to kill us." Clint
sneered. He opened the palm of his hand and in it were two tiny green
pills. "Tranks." He said conversationally.
That stilled Alex's thrashing, he lay still, panting and glaring up at the
leader of the group.
"To help take the edge off." The southerner had really wanted to screw
Alex while he was un drugged, but the older man was just too wild and
unpredictable. Clint wanted Alex to stick around for a while; he was sick
of humping Skeeter and his skinny ass. So the best way to make Alex's body
last was to control him with drugs, of which, they had plenty of.
Alex had no choice swallow the liquid or choke.
J.R released Alex and took the bottle of water from Clint.
Clint straddled Alex's thighs and fished the knife out of the pocket of his
plaid shirt. "Now." He said as he opened the knife and began to cut away
Alex's T-shirt. "I believe I was going to show the guys here what you
looked like under all of these clothes, before you went an' got all
'uppity."
"Fuck you." Hissed Alex watching as his T-shirt was tossed aside. His
wrists burned and his ankles and calf muscles were aching but the men would
never know it by just looking at him.
Alex was an expert at hiding his emotions and burying physical pain.
Another thing he was grateful to the orphanage for.
"No, Mr. Foreign Language man, the idea is to fuck you." Clint laughed like
he had just made some sort of a brilliant joke. He cut his way down the
legs of Alex pants and tossed them away in the same direction of the shirt.
"Ohh... Our boy here is a boxer-brief man." Clint cooed in a high
falsetto voice as he ran the tip of the knife lazily over Alex's
cotton-covered genitals.
The other four men stared; held rapt by Alex's almost perfect body. None of
them even came close to his beauty or his muscle tone and every one of them
was much younger than Alex.
All of the men in the room would have claimed to have been straight before
the virus, though two of them would have been lying. But for the other
three who were completely heterosexual before, now, to them, sex was sex.
And with Alice long since dead, Alex looked like an oasis in the middle of
the Gobi desert.
"Your pills won't kick in and calm you down for another thirty minutes or
more minutes." Said Clint leaving Alex's underwear on. He scooted up so
that he was straddling Alex's waist and leaning in he said, "You killed our
friend Johnnie and hurt Harley an' me. For that, I'm gonna make you pay."
He dropped the knife over the side of the mattress as he spoke.
Alex snorted loudly, clearing his sinus's, then hawked the disgusting matter
directly in Clint's face. "I said, Fuck you. You're all goners."
"YOU BASTARD! COCK SUCKING LITTLE PRICK!" Clint enraged beyond belief,
wiped away the green mess and then punched Alex on his left cheek bone. His
cock stiffened when his fist made contact with Alex's face, Clint got off on
hurting others. Suddenly he flipped Alex over and yanked down his
underwear.
Immediately Alex's ass shot into the air and he gave a loud grunt from the
ache. Hot spikes of pain jolted up the backs of his calf muscles. And now
he understood the point of the 2 x 4 between his ankles. The apparatus gave
easier access to an unwilling participants back side.
"You're going to regret doing that!" Clint said, slapping Alex's left ass
cheek hard, leaving a red print behind. "Gimme' the grease."
At his request Skeeter passed him a small tube of gel that had been taken
from a sex shop. It was not a true lubricant but something called Penis
Heat Cream. As soon as the red coloured gel touched the skin it reacted
immediately and began to heat up. The gel was harmless, it was cinnamon
based and felt a lot like an analgesic arthritis rub would.
The gel was from Johnnie's stuff, he had used it for his own personal
pleasure.
As soon as he had the condom on, Clint whispered evilly into Alex's ear,
"This is going to hurt you a lot more than me."
Then in one brutal stroke, he sank his cock all the way up Alex's tight, un
giving ass.
Alex had decided not to utter a sound but that resolution dissolved as soon
as Clint entered him and he screamed from the bottom of his guts. The last
time he had felt pain like this, ten young men were hacking away at his left
arm.
He had screamed his way through that experience too.
Clint closed his eyes and lost himself in Alex's agony.
Though the way was greased, Alex's tightness enfolded the young group
leader; he could feel the heat from the cinnamon gel on his cock even
through the latex.
Stimulated on by his captives cries, it was only a matter of minutes before
Clint came.
He thrust inside of Alex until his convulsions subsided. He pulled out and
looking down, smiled at his softening organ. The used condom was coated in
gel and blood. Clint carefully pulled the rubber off and tossed it into a
corner.
Harley knelt down and undid the leather cuffs around Alex's ankles and threw
the board aside. He was next and he wanted to be looking Alex right in his
pretty face when he fucked him and he wanted to feel the heat of the lube on
his cock as he did it too. A little bit of pain, even his own, was always
pleasurable in Harley's opinion.
Clint got up off of Alex and Harley moved him. He flipped Alex over and
searched his eyes. "I'm usually fond of women,..." He said. "...but
for you I'll make the exception."
Alex just stared up defiantly at the blond haired man. His legs ached and
his ass burned. His eyes were blurry from watering and his breathing came
out in rapid pants. But for all of his internal aches and pains, his body,
other than the bruise made by Clint and his raw wrists, showed no outward
appearance of the abuse that he had just been through.
Undoing his fly and opening his pants, Harley pulled out his semierect cock
and finished stroking it the rest of the way to life. "You guys mind?" He
said without looking at the others. "This aint' no circle jerk, I'd like to
be alone with doll face here." He smiled, "You'll get your chance at him
soon enough."
Bruce, J.R and Skeeter started to protest but Clint chased them out of the
room. "Come on," He said, "Y'all know Harley's shy."
"I'm next." Muttered Bruce as he shut the door behind himself, leaving Alex
and Harley alone.
Harley stood up and removed his pants and his shirt, undressing slowly as he
stared down at Alex. He had lied when he told Alex that he preferred women.
The truth was, he like men just as much. Especially men like his prisoner;
good-looking and muscular.
Alex did not reply to that but thought, Yes, please do, so I can rip
your fucking tongue out of your face!
"I won't though 'cause I know you'll just try to bite me." Harley laughed
softly and ran his hands over the chiseled plains of Alex's chest. He
pinched at the small nipples and then gave them a hard twist.
That finally got a reaction from Alex. "Fucking Bastard." He said slowly,
the pills hitting him now. "You're the first one to die." He squeezed his
eyes shut and willed his cock not to rise, but as Alex already knew, wishes
rarely came true. His penis rose, a mind of it's own, under Harley's
careful and attentive ministrations.
Harley felt Alex's large cock grow erect and he smiled around it. Forcing a
person this way was so much more satisfying. Any old brute could overpower
and hop on top of someone and rape them. But to mind fuck a person, to rape
their intellect, that was something else all together.
And it was Alex's protested pleasure that he wanted, to make a noncompliant
subject submit and actually gain satisfaction from the forced encounter; it
was how Harley gained his pleasure.
Besides, the older man had hurt him and Harley didn't particularly feel
like being nice right now anyway.
He sucked and licked at Alex eagerly, carefully avoiding his ass, knowing
that it was no longer a viable, erogenous zone. As he deep throated Alex's
cock, Harley reached up with his hands and rubbed them across the smooth
chest again, this time playing gently with Alex's nipples, softly teasing
and caressing them until they were standing up and sensitive.
Though the drugs were making Alex relaxed and mostly slow to react, there
was still enough in him to orgasm and after about five minutes of Harley's
blow-job, he did just that. He turned his head to the side in shame as he
released his seed over Harley's calloused hand.
Shutting his eyes, Alex tried to feign sleep.
Harley would not be fooled however, he looked at Alex and knew better.
They had used these drugs many times and it was way too soon for the man to
fall asleep. Reaching out he turned Alex's face up and forced him to look
at him. "Look at me!" He ordered. "I know you're still awake. You won't
a fall asleep for another hour or so."
Alex opened his eyes slowly, but he really didn't see with them.
Harley stared down into his prisoner's vacant eyes. They were wide open and
unblinking and reminded him of a kewpie doll's.
Alex mewled out a soft groan at the intrusion but that was all he could
manage. Forced to watch, Alex saw the pleasure slide across his rapists
face as he pushed into him time and time again.
Fifteen minutes later, Harley was done, it was Bruce's turn with Alex.
And like Clint, Bruce was really rough with Alex.
He was angry that he couldn't be fucking a woman instead of a man and even
angrier still, that Alex no longer had the capability to fight him. But
what pissed Bruce off the most was that he was stuck getting sloppy thirds
after Clint and Harley. Bruce screwed Alex unemotionally, coming to his
release quickly. He pushed off of the prone man and left the room, never on
ce uttering so much as a single word to him.
After Bruce came J.R and he was truly a sexual predator. J.R. didn't care
whether Alex was male or female; willing or not. By the time he had a go at
Alex, the Russian was beaten and exhausted. J.R wiped the dripping blood
from Alex's nose and cleaned up the handsome man's face for him using a rag
and some bottled water. J.R removed only his pants and forced Alex to suck
him off. All the while Alex was giving him a blow job, J.R called Alex
derogatory names. He whispered things to him like, "What a sweet bitch..." and took great pleasure in tell Alex that he was "... nothing but a
whore and a slut..."
As J.R said these things, Alex flashed back to a time at the centre when the
director of the place had said much the same words to him. Though his body
felt boneless and he was unable to really speak or fight back, Alex's mind
was working at almost 100%. He could hear, comprehend and remember every
vile word and act that the men had done to, and were doing to him.
J.R's groin was situated directly over top of Alex's face. He stretched
his torso out over top of Alex's chained arms. He wrapped his large hands
around Alex's forearms and dug his fingers into the soft flesh painfully.
Leaving several bruises. He pushed his hard cock down Alex's throat,
uncaring of the gagging his victim was doing. Just seconds before he came,
J.R pulled out of Alex's mouth and finished himself off; squirting his hot
seed all over Alex's face.
All Alex could do was close his eyes and try not to let in any of the semen
into his eyes. He tried to bury the humiliation he felt deep.
Afterwards, J.R. scooped up a gout of his own cum and spread it over Alex's
bruised, full lips. He pushed some into Alex's mouth using two
fingers.
Skeeter, in the beginning had only wanted to treat Alex like the victim he
was. To hurt him like Bruce and Clint had sometimes hurt him.
When their other prisoner, Alice was alive, the men mostly left him alone,
sometimes J.R. or Harley would come to him wanting a hand job or a blow-job
and he would comply. But after Alice had died, Clint and Bruce seemed to
get meaner or maybe they were the same and he just never noticed before.
Skeeter couldn't bring himself to pay a visit to poor Alice, because the
truth was, he preferred men.
Skeeter would have preferred to have been with Alex in a consensual sexual
situation but since there was no way that their captive would submit
willingly, it would have to been done without his permission.
The first Skeeter did when he came into the room was to raise Alex's head a
little bit and give him a drink of water. Then he wiped the well used man's
body with a warm wash cloth.
It didn't matter however, how gentle Skeeter was or how slow he went,
Skeeter was still having intercourse with Alex, against his will.
No meant no.
Alex lay there limply and wondered if this was his real retribution for all
of the sins that he had committed. That having his arm cut off without the
aid of anesthetic was not enough of a penalty but was merely a forewarning
of things to come.
After all, he had gotten his arm back, so technically it couldn't be
considered a punishment anymore.
As soon as Skeeter was finished, the young man wiped Alex clean and called
J.R. into the bedroom. Together they got Alex up and helped him to go to the
bathroom. After that, they slipped on a T-shirt and some underwear on him.
They rearranged Alex's position and settled him at the other end of the bed
so that his left ankle was now cuffed and not his wrists.
After they had done all that, J.R had Alex swallow down another two pills.
J.R. left while Skeeter covered Alex up with an old quilt. He plopped
himself down on the floor next to the mattress and sat guard until he was
certain the prisoner was asleep. The pills that J.R had given Alex ensured
that he would sleep for at least eight hours if not more.
Two Days Later
"What do you mean we can't go searching for him?!" Mulder yelled at
Skinner, frantic that his lover was more than twenty-four hours late. "He's
over due! What more do you need to know!" His worry was for the man was
uncontainable.
Mulder along with Scully, Skinner, Josh and the Lone Gun Men was pacing
around the conference room nervously, arguing with Skinner and Scully, all
in an effort to get Walter to release some men for a search party.
"Would you just calm down for a minute!" Scully snapped at Mulder, tired of
his over protective lover routine.
"Calm down!? Don't you tell me to Calm down!" Retorted Mulder angrily to
Scully.
"Would you both just... shut... up!" Skinner shouted at both of them.
Scully immediately turned her glare on Skinner.
Mulder turned from them both and happened to catch the look in Josh's eyes.
The younger man's face was frozen into a grimace and Mulder could tell that
he did not like being ordered off of a search and rescue mission either.
"Don't you dare tell me to shut up Walter Skinner!" Said Dana, furious
with her lover. "Why I oughta'..."
Skinner put his arms around Dana's waist and pulled her into the corner and
talked to her in hushed, soothing tones.
Mulder didn't know what was being said to her, and he didn't care either.
What he did care about was going out looking for his lover. Alex had been
legitimately gone for a week fulfilling his mission directives and Mulder
had pined away for him the whole time.
All this he had told to Skinner but it was to no avail.
"Excuse me...?" Mulder interrupted rudely. "But could we get back to
Alex."
Skinner frowned at his former employee, frustrated with his childish
behavior. "Look Mulder, there is a blizzard raging out there and as long as
I'm in charge I say we wait until the storm blows it's self out. Alex
wouldn't want others to risk their well being for his life."
"How the fuck would you know what Alex would want..." Mulder
interrupted.
"I've given you my final word." Skinner cut Mulder off mid-sentence. "No
search party leaves this building until the weather clears."
"Fine." Mulder said tightly. Spinning on his heel stalked out of the
room, followed closely by Josh.
"Mulder." Josh called, he grabbed the agent by the arm and spun him
around.
"What!?" Mulder snapped. When he realized that it was Josh who had
stopped him, he took a deep calming breath, and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.
He shouldn't be angry with Josh, after all, the young man argued vigorously
with Skinner about going out and searching for Alex and Bill. Mulder was
still very aware however, that Josh did have an ulterior motive for wanting
to go; namely his crush on Alex.
"Skinner can't stop us from going out on our own you know. If you want,
I'll outfit us both and we'll pull out of here before dark. We can trace
Alex and Davis's mission; follow in their footsteps. I know the mission
details."
Mulder smiled, ulterior motives or not, he admired the kid's spirit. "All
right. Lets do it."
"Good. Come with me and I'll explain where the two of them were going while
we get ready."
Two Hours Later
Mulder and Josh shrugged on their heavy back packs, which were full with
everything they would need for a cold weather survival expedition. Each
man would be riding on this own snow mobile, with Josh carrying the
emergency supplies and stores for Alex underneath the seat of his and Mulder
would pull provisions, lashed firmly to a sled behind him.
Josh turned to Mulder and said, "Before we go Mulder, I want to clear the
air between us."
Mulder faced Josh. "Okay." He replied, puzzled. "What is it?"
"Before Alex left, I made a pass at him."
"And?" Mulder's heard was thumping with jealousy.
"And, he told me that he already had a lover that he was quite fond of.
But that he was in need a friend." Josh replied honestly.
"I see." Mulder didn't quite know what to say to the younger man. "Why are
you telling me this?" He asked finally.
"Because I just wanted you to know the truth. I'm doing this because I
still love Alex, even though he doesn't return the feelings. I can't help
my self, it's not easy to fall out of love, especially when your supposed
too." Josh's lips formed a thin line, "I not to interfere again. Alex
has offered me friendship and I'll accept it. Gladly. I'll just have to
do a better job of hiding my feelings and keeping them to myself. That's
all" Josh shook his head and said after a pause, "I just thought you
should know where I stand."
"All right." Mulder said. "I appreciate the candor."
I think.
Josh pulled down his goggles, fired up the snow mobile, and started in the
direction of the Baltimore space craft.
Five Days Later
"Alex." Harley cooed softly into his sleeping captive's ear. "Time for
another shot." He sank the needle into Alex's vein and pushed in another
dose of synthetic cocain into the Russians tired body.
The band of men holding Alex had all agreed to feed him the drugs regularly
as a means of controlling him.
An un drugged Alex was just too painful; all of the men now sported bruises
from the angry hostage, meted out in his more lucid moments.
The drugs made Alex docile enough so that one handcuff locked around a
single ankle was all that was needed to keep him restrained. The mood
altering drugs also made it easy for the men to perform the necessities
with Alex, like going to the toilet and washing up.
As a result of his growing addiction, they didn't need to feed Alex very
much, his appetite was already decreasing. It had been some five full days
since the gang of thugs had taken him and during that time all five men had
treated him badly. Whether it was their intention too or not.
Now Alex knew how Alice, his predecessor, could have been fucked to death;
she had most likely died of neglect.
An apathetic Alex thanked Harley silently for the drugs, because when he was
numb from the high he didn't have to feel the stinging humiliation of being
used. He had had to put up with it for years as a child and a teenager.
But now, to have to go through it again as an adult, was just too much for
Alex to cope with. He welcomed the stark nothingness that the cocain
provided. Alex knew that his body was already addicted to the powerful
pharmaceutical grade powder but he didn't care. Instead he prayed to a
god, a god that he used to have faith in as a child, that the next dose
would be his last. He hoped Harley would overdose him either accidentally
or intentionally... It didn't matter which.
Already naked, Harley lay down facing Alex and pulled him in close to his
chest. He kissed Alex's full, unresisting mouth tenderly. Surprising
actions, considering that five days ago he was right into brutalizing the
man.
Now, instead of hurting Alex, Harley just wanted to make love to his sweet
hostage.
Sweet, tender passionate love, not unlike how Skeeter had felt. Though
unlike Skeeter, Harley had no compunctions about what he was doing. Alex
was their captive, held in the mansion against his will, forcibly confined
and used as a party favor when all the Russian wanted was to be let go.
"Alex, Kiss me." Harley whispered into his face, pulling the limp,
semiconscious man toward him so that their bare chests touched.
Alex responded, scarcely registering what he was doing, but obeying the
command nonetheless.
"He's in there Josh, I can feel him. They've given him something and he's
fading fast." Mulder and Josh had followed Alex's trail to the campsite
that he and Davis had made.
They took the time to bury the older man properly, with Josh saying a prayer
for his soul. But as soon as they were done, the team took off in the
direction that Alex's abductors had taken him.
Mulder was acutely aware of Alex and his despair, he was so tuned into his
lover that he could feel Alex's profound wish to die. It was then, that
Mulder realized that Alex was being drugged which was why he couldn't always
sense him.
The trail led them to a small tangle of trees in front of an old, rundown
mansion. And now the two of them were preparing to go in and retrieve Alex.
As they were doing that, another snow storm had started to kick up.
Josh checked the clip in his gun and made sure his spare ammo was handy,
double checking to be sure that the guns' safety was off. Mulder standing
across from Josh mirrored his actions.
"You go in first, I'll cover you. Can you tell where he is?" Josh asked.
"He's in a back bedroom. Someone's with him." Mulder hissed. He knew
that a man named Harley was with Alex, and that he was in the process of
seducing the barely responsive Alex; kissing and laying next to him with a
hard-on. Mulder's face turned red his heart rated pulsed with outrage.
"You okay Mulder?" Josh asked.
"I'm fine." He snapped. "There are four more men sleeping inside, each of
them in their own room."
"I'll take care of the sleepers, you go and get Alex. We'll meet in the
middle."
"Get your hands off of him." Mulder hissed.
Harley froze as soon as he felt the gun barrel pressed against his temple;
his erection deflating immediately. Harley had been in the process of
making Alex ready for entry while still kissing the bruised up Russian.
"NOW! Before I kill you!" Mulder wanted to kill the stranger any ways.
Harley slowly got to his knees and stood up. He turned to face the angry
man, obviously Alex had been telling the truth when he threatened them on
his first night here that someone would come looking for him.
"Get dressed." Mulder ordered. "Against the far wall, spread em'. A piece
of shit like you knows the drill."
Harley, who had been in trouble with the law many times before, turned and
faced the wall, assuming the position.
Mulder tried not look to closely at his lover; he didn't dare let his
attention be diverted from the man standing before him.
Hearing foot steps behind him, Mulder stepped back a few paces in order to
keep an eye on the door and Harley.
In trooped four semi-dressed men followed closely by an angry Josh.
"Found them all." He said to Mulder. "Go stand by your friend." He
ordered his prisoners sharply.
They did as they were told and all five men stared impassively at the bland
white wall. Josh, like Mulder didn't dare take his eyes off of the men.
From the corner of his eye Josh could see Alex and the ruined condition that
he was in. But he stomped on his emotions, he could not feel sorry for his
friend just yet. And there would be plenty of time later to exact
retribution for their heinous acts later. Right now they had to get out
Alex of this place. Josh let his anger surround him but not control him.
Released, Mulder dropped to his knees. "Alex... Oh Alex... " He cried
softly, taking his lover gently into his arms. "Wake up Alex."
"I told you to face the wall Mother Fucker!" Josh yelled menacingly when
Skeeter tried to look over his shoulder at Alex. "If any one of you so much
as farts I'll kill ya!"
Alex opened his eyes when he heard the familiar loving voice call to him... "F... Fox?"
He asked incapable of focusing in on his lover.
"Yes Alex... It's Fox." Mulder gently wiped away some dirt off of one
bruised cheek bone. He pulled a lock pick from his coat pocket and within
seconds had the handcuff around Alex's ankle undone and off.
A shot rang out and Jimmy-ray fell to the ground screeching in pain, none of
the four others dared to make a move to help him.
"I told you not to move and I meant it." Josh had only shot J.R. through the
meat on the underside of his triceps muscle.
"Josh?" Alex asked Mulder weekly.
"It's Josh." Mulder replied quietly. He had found Alex's ruined clothes in
the corner of the room and stared at them disgustedly; they had been cut up.
Going through his own knapsack, Mulder pulled out the spare stuff that he
had brought along just in case. Kneeling down, Mulder began to dress the
rubbery limbed Alex.
"Were gonna got you out of here." Mumbled Mulder more for his own
reassurance than for his lover's.
"I'm sorry I'm so out of it." Alex said slowly. "They've been giving me
stuff." He tried to sound angry but couldn't.
"What did you give him?" Josh yelled to the backs of the men. When no one
answered him he said between clenched teeth, "Someone had better tell me
right now, before I shoot one of you in the back."
Skeeter flinched and babbled, "Cocain. Harley made it from stuff he took
from the pharmacy."
"Sons of bitches!" Mulder hissed under his breath. He pulled on Alex's
coat, which was still in good shape and then sat him up. It was apparent
that Alex would not be walking out of the mansion; the Russian was unsteady
just sitting.
Alex had just barely finished recovering from his year-long stay at the
rebel ship.
Mulder put Alex over his shoulder and then grabbed the back of Josh's pants
to help pull himself up. Alex's body was so cold from being in the unheated
bedroom that he was growing hypothermic.
"Got him?" Josh asked without taking his eyes off of his targets.
"I got him." Mulder said, steadying himself. Skinny or not, Alex was all
dead weight, and still heavy to carry. "You coming?" He asked.
"Go to the snowmobile and get Alex settled first. Honk when you're ready
and I'll come running." Josh said in an even, authoritative tone.
The snowmobiles were parked close by and luckily the blowing wind had
covered the sound of the motors when they first approached.
Mulder honked the horn several times, hoping that Josh would hear it over
the whining wind.
A faint honking noise carried over the wind and to Josh's ears; Mulder was
ready to leave. He looked at all of the men, disgusted by their animalistic
behavior. Josh pictured Alex and the poor condition his friend was in; he
knew without having to be told what they had done to him.
Finally letting his anger take him over, Josh did what he thought was right
and shot all five men. Making sure none of them were left breathing.
Mulder's head snapped up.
Was that gunfire?
He crossed to Josh's snowmobile and started it for him.
A minute later the young man appeared through the white blanketed fir trees.
"Lets get out of here." He yelled.
Mulder pulled out first, picking his way slowly over the terrain while Josh
followed making sure that Alex did not flip over.
The men only managed to go about ten kilometers' when Josh pulled alongside
of Mulder. "We have to hole up somewhere and let this storm pass." He said
reasonably.
Mulder nodded in agreement, they were on the outskirts of a condo complex
for senior citizens. "Let's find a place here." He shouted back, putting
the snow mobile in gear.
They had wisely chosen a small dwelling because it would be easier to keep
warm; the complex that they were staying in appeared abandoned. Luckily the
fireplace was a traditional wood burning one and not gas. Josh found the
deceased owners abandoned wood pile out back and immediately set to work
building a fire.
Mulder in the meantime, spread out their high density pieces of foam on the
ground and pushed them together. He made up one giant bed for all three of
them, using the owner's flannel linens and bedding that he had raided from
the master bedroom and a hall closet.
Josh brought in as much wood as he thought they would need and stoked the
fire. Satisfied with it, he put the screen up and reached for a packet of
food. Tearing off the top of the foil pouch, he ate the wieners and beans
cold; like Mulder was now doing.
"Is he going to be okay?" Josh asked, afraid of the answer.
"I don't know. I honestly don't know." Mulder looked past Josh out of a
window that was set high up in the wall. He spoke to the darkness that was
falling as rapidly as the snow. "He's really cold, we need to eat then
crawl into bed with him and try to warm him up."
Josh nodded his head in agreement, but did not reply.
There was a few minutes of silence between the men, each of them lost in
their own thoughts.
"Josh?" Mulder said finally, still staring out the window; shoving the cold
food into his mouth methodically.
"Yes?" Josh replied around a mouth full of beans.
"Was that gunfire I heard back at the mansion?" He pulled his eyes away
from the uncovered window and looked at Josh expectantly.
Josh, an incredibly bad liar, said. "Yes. I... I... Fired a few warning
shots just to make sure that they wouldn't try to follow us." He licked
his lips and darted his eyes left and right, unable to make direct eye
contact with Mulder.
Mulder recognizing the lie for what it was, accepted it as fact.
Better not to know the truth anyway.
"Okay." He said. "Eat up and let's get to bed."
Josh nodded and finished up quickly. He completed his normal bedtime
routine of brushing his teeth and relieving himself as did Mulder. After
adding wood to the fire, he stood next to the cozy nest of down and stripped
to his underwear.
Mulder stripped to his boxer's too and then both of them climbed in on
either side of Alex. Immediately Alex rolled over and pulling Mulder into
his chest, spooned in behind him. This made the former smile with relief,
perhaps Alex wasn't as bad off as he seemed if he was cognizant enough to
seek warmth from him.
Josh, with his heart aching and bearing a hard on he wished he didn't have,
cuddled in behind Alex. He put his warm chest to Alex's back but did not
push his hips too closely to Alex's behind, it didn't seem right to Josh
that he would have an erection at such an inappropriate time.
Mulder heard Josh's sigh and could guess what it was all about. He admired
the young man's ability to stay clinical and remote, even though he still
had feelings for Alex. "Good night Josh." Mulder said, pulling Alex's arm
tighter over his own waist so he could hold the chilled hand.
"'Night Mulder." Josh echoed, and despite it being only eight in the
evening he was ready for sleep.
"Don't worry Mulder, Alex will be all right." Josh said after a minute,
his voice soft. "We'll get him back to the bunker and Dr. Scully will fix
him up. Just like new."
"Yeah, well, if this storm doesn't break, we'll just have to wait here and
hope." Mulder stared into the flames of the fire.
"If Alex and Bill could succeed in killing all those aliens—two agents
against thousands—then two men versus some snow should be a piece a cake."
Josh said optimistically.
Mulder didn't to reply to that, but oddly enough, the young man's confidence
boosted his own spirits. Josh was just cocky enough to succeed. If he was
crazy enough to have faith in their abilities then why didn't he?
Cause you're too worried about Alex! Josh is right about one thing
Alex does need Scully and as soon as possible.
"Deal."
"All right then. Let's get some shut eye, I'm exhausted."
"Me too." Josh replied through a yawn.
Sleep however, did not come as easily to the two men as they would have
liked it too. Their brains worked over time with worry for Alex, who seemed
to be the only one able to slumber peacefully.
The Next Day
"Mulder." Scully called softly to Mulder, who was sleeping in what had to
be an uncomfortable chair. He woke instantly with a start. She smiled at
his rumpled appearance and whispered quietly, "Let's talk outside."
Mulder gave his peacefully sleeping lover a look of longing over his
shoulder before leaving the room.
Alex was in the infirmary of the shelter and had been resting peacefully
with the aid of sedation. The trio had been back for over 12 hours now and
for almost the whole time Mulder had been at Alex's side.
As luck would have it, at some point during the night, the storm had blown
its self out. So when Josh and Mulder woke up that morning, they were
greeted by a brilliantly sunny day; as if in reward for their bravery and
determination.
Shutting the door to Alex's room, Scully smiled at Mulder and said, "Don't
worry. All his tests check out, he's going to be fine."
Mulder sighed in relief then reached out and hugged Scully tightly to his
chest. "Thank god..." He whispered into her hair, his voice husky with
emotion. "Thank god." He said again. A single tear had escaped from his
eye, but he quickly wiped it away.
Scully patted Mulder's back a few times then eased out of his arms. "Alex
woke up when he was being examined. That right there was a good sign. The
combination of plenty of fluids along with some IV protein perked him up.
"I don't know how to tell you this... I think you already can guess this,
but Krycek was... ra..." She couldn't seem to find the words.
"Just spit it out Scully." Mulder said, knowing what she was going to say
already.
"Alex was sexually assaulted." She said it quickly, so the words wouldn't
stick in her throat.
"Many times." A bright red flush stained her face. Blushing was something
she never did and she didn't quite know why now except that having to
examine Krycek that way, even if she did only assist a male helper, put a
human face on the man that she honestly, until that day, despised.
While Mulder and Josh were gone off in search of Krycek, Walter had
convinced her that she should just let bygones be bygones.
She agreed with her lover's arguments. However she still did not like Alex
Krycek and probably never would warm to him. But she was willing to try and
be civil with him, for both Mulder and Walter's sake.
She herself was changing, and in a very big way.
Dana figured that if Fox Mulder was willing to forget that he was sleeping
with his half -brother, the killer of many, then she was willing to put
aside her issues, and get along too.
"Alex was torn up a little bit, but we didn't have to stitch him at least.
That was when he first woke up, when Robert was examining him internally.
Krycek became very distressed, but was coherent enough to realize where he
was and what was happening to him." She cleared her throat. "We checked
him for viruses', everything came back clean except for a small dose of the
clap. But another few days of penicillin and that will clear right up. Now
for the good news." She rubbed the side of Mulder's arm in a reassuring
manner. "He can go home with you tomorrow. Physically Alex will make a
complete recovery. Physiologically he's going to need help... but that's
more your department than mine."
"What?" Mulder asked, once again his relief replaced by anxiety.
"No... No." She assured Mulder. "It's great news. The very best."
"That would be nice to hear for a change. What is it?"
"I'm pregnant." A large smile broke out over the petite redheads face and
she blushed again.
"What? How? I thought you were..." Mulder stuttered.
"Sterile? I know, me too. But yet here I am thirteen weeks along. Already
through my first trimester." Scully instinctively put her small hands
across her flat belly.
"Walter? He's the father?" Mulder said, playfully.
Scully slapped Mulder in the arm and suddenly it seemed just like old times
again. "Of course the baby's Walter's!"
Mulder pulled Scully back into another tight embrace. "I'm so happy for
you." He said and meaning it. After a second he quipped, "Dana Scully, the
mother of the new world."
That elicited a groan from the woman in his arms.
After a midnight supper alone in his apartment, Mulder went back to the infi
rmary. He wanted to sit with his Alex for a little while more before going
to bed himself.
Alex had woken up a little while earlier and had told Mulder everything that
had happened to him. From the reason why he and Davis had strayed to the
older man's death and his rescue; Alex spilled it all.
"Hold me Fox..." He said softly, the anguish in his voice tangible.
"...Hold me tight." And Mulder did. He crawled right into the small bed
with his lover and held on for dear life as the Russian shook from the shock
and the remembrance of the details. Afterwards, Mulder had Robert give Alex
a mild sedative to help him sleep through the rest of the night. He hoped
that the sedative would interfere and keep Alex's bad dreams at bay.
As Mulder entered the infirmary, he saw Samantha through the large glass
window in the wall of Alex's room. She was sitting in the large chair next
to the bed holding Alex's limp hand. And as soon as he walked in she began
drying her tears.
"Sam." He said softly.
"Fox." Replied Samantha, startled and a little unnerved by Fox's presence.
Since coming to the shelter she had only spoken to her brother on the phone
system and via letters and notes... but not in person.
Samantha Mulder had not laid eyes on her brother since she saw him shoot her
father that night long ago in D.C.
"I'm sorry. I should go. He wouldn't want me sitting here and crying over
him any ways." She said, trying to leave.
"No. Don't go. Stay. Please." Mulder pleaded to her with his eyes.
Samantha looked sadly at Alex. "Okay." She agreed. "Alex will recover
won't he?" She asked, frightened for her friend.
"Yes. He's just sedated right now. He's been through a lot." Mulder
grabbed her hand and held it softly in his own, "Let's sit outside and
talk."
He led her to the couch just outside of Alex's room. Robert, Scully's
assistant was working at a desk across the room from them, the lighting was
dim and minimal, putting both Mulder and Sam at ease.
They sat and after a moment of awkward silence it was Sam who began to speak
first.
"Alex came to me one night," She said wistfully, "...When I first arrived
here and talked to me. Not at me, like Dr. Scully and Mr. Skinner did with
all of their nosy questions, but to me. He made me feel at ease
around him. Alex told me that we were alike he and I that we were both
outsiders and our only link to the shelter was you... Fox."
A tear slid down her prominent cheek bone and Mulder wanted to reach out
and wipe it away for her but he resisted.
"Alex understood things about me and father, things that went on between us..."
Her voice trailed off for a second, as if she was recalling a
specific incident before going on to say, "...Alex said that it had been
the same for him too."
Mulder winced at the mention of the abuse. He already knew all about what
had happened to Alex, but his lover had not mentioned Samantha's own plight.
Perhaps because it was not his secret to reveal.
As Samantha spoke she stared at shadow playing on the wall, her voice even
and melodic, "Alex explained to me that it was okay to still love him..."
Mulder knew who she meant by him; Carl Spender.
"...no matter how evil he was" She turned her gaze on her brother, "Alex
told me that you loved him, despite everything he had done. He also said
that he was about as evil as they came." She looked to her left and
studied Alex through the window for a few seconds. "Hmm... He looks like
an angel to me." She admitted, shaking her head, "I can't even picture Alex
doing bad things."
Mulder turned to watch his lover sleep too and he silently agreed with his
sister. Alex did look like an angel. "Alex used to do bad things for
reasons he thought were right. Believe me, I know. But that's the old
Alex. He's changed now, only he won't allow himself to shed the guilt from
his old life. It's how he punishes himself, a self imposed penance."
Sam reached out and held both of her brother's hands. "One night Alex and I
talked about you. He told me everything. Especially about what kind of man
you are. Alex said you were dedicated and loved those around you
intensely. He admires your determination so much." She gave Mulder a small
smile despite the lone teardrop slowly sliding down her face.
Mulder merely nodded, he didn't know what to say to that.
"He also said that after I had disappeared you blamed yourself and never
stopped searching for me. That you refused to give up." Her tears flowed
freely now.
Mulder could not hold back his own tears. "No. I never stopped hoping.
You're my only sister Samantha and I love you. Always."
Sam sniffed and brushed at the drops of water, the wet tracks tickling in
their wake. "And I lo... love you." She said just before leaning in and
hugging her brother.
Epilogue
The lovers lay close; as if woven together beneath the warm flannel sheets
of their bed. Alex had his arm draped loosely across Mulder's waist and was
using his broad, lightly furred chest as a pillow.
Mulder, needing to keep lover near, had his arm wrapped tightly round Alex's
shoulders and held him close.
Tonight had been the first time that they had made love since Alex had
returned home. The lovemaking had been a fragile affair, Mulder was very
afraid at first that he was going to hurt Alex. But the extra long, extra
loving session ended with orgasmic satisfaction for both of them.
Between soft caresses and declarations of eternal love, Fox and Alex
climaxed together.
Exhausted, Alex had fallen asleep amid his post coital glow and was now
twitching from a vivid nightmare of the mansion.
Mulder invaded Alex's unconsciousness and slowly guided him away from the
horrifying recollections to a bright, sunny day and a tranquil meadow full
of colourfull wild-flowers.
Alex relaxed and Mulder turned his own thoughts back to him and Alex.
Mulder's thoughts were very much about how his lover. A man who had torn
apart many people's lives with his actions. Who had killed and maimed many
more but yet, bore the unreasonable brunt of responsibility for the
destruction of the earth's people. He knew that the Russian now felt that
it was somehow fell to his responsibility to try and save the few of those
who were left from the invaders clutches.
Which was the real reason why Krycek had volunteered to go on the mission in
the first place. The Russian had succeeded in killing thousands of alien
beings thus buying the human race a little more valuable time.
Alex wore his past bad deeds and crimes like scars, unwilling to forgive
himself for all of the sins he had committed. But he had paid for his sins,
dearly, twice over. It seemed that if it wasn't for bad luck, Alex Krycek
would not have any luck at all. Because even his good intentions had
somehow managed to backfire and he wound up being punished for those too.
Worse still, it had been Bill Davis who had paid the ultimate price for
Alex's good intentions. He paid with his life, a fact that Alex was going
to have to live with the rest of his life. Just one more incident
that Mulder knew Alex would carry around; never to absolve himself of. Yet
through all of the bad things that had been going on, the Russian had
managed to make some good things come about too.
Though she accepted Alex's presence in Mulder's life, he knew that Scully
would never fully forgive Alex nor forget his role in her abduction and in
the death of her beloved sister.
Alex knew this too, so by silent agreement the issue would not be brought up
again.
As Mulder lay their musing about these things and more, Alex slowly came
awake. His dream of a fragrant warm field of flowers retreating. "What are
you doing awake Fox?" Alex asked sleepily.
"Laying here and thinking." He replied, softly running his finger tips over
Alex's shoulder.
"About what?" Alex asked, playing idly with the hairs around Mulder's navel.
"About how lucky I am..." Mulder switched to carding his fingers gently
through Alex's silky brown hair.
"Lucky." Alex snorted softly, "How?"
"Well, the virus didn't kill me for starters. And I have my baby sister
back for another... thanks to you." He pulled Alex even closer and
kissed the top of his head. "You did some major damage to the aliens,
Spender is dead and I've got my brother and my lover in my arms to keep me
safe. Samantha and you are all I'll ever want... All I'll ever need."
He whispered huskily into Alex's clean hair.
"We won a battle Fox. Not the war. Killing those aliens was a group
effort." Alex planted a few soft kisses on Mulder's chest, even now refusing
to accept the accolades for the success.
"Yeah, but we'll keep on fighting them Alex." Mulder vowed. "You
and me... until the very end."
The Brother in My Arms
by Demi-X
"Hear this Agent Mulder. Listen very carefully, because what I'm telling
you is deadly serious. There is a war raging and unless you pull your head
out of the sand, you and I and about five billion other people are going to
go the way of the dinosaur."
"I was sent by a man, a man who knows as I do that resistance is in our
grasp."
"I think we need to send in a team in and do a little reconnaissance work.
We should check the ship out, just to find out what, if anything, there is
to see on board. Maybe there's something on it that might help us."
Fox Mulder was just that, plain Fox Mulder. No longer was the word
'spooky' mentioned in the same sentence as his name. 
Baltimore MD
When Mulder had peeked inside, he had seen Alex Krycek naked and strapped
down to an operating table. The Russian was screaming for all he was worth
as the shape shifter ran the thin beam of a blue laser through the top layer
of his epidermis of his right thigh.
The alien was so intent on his task that he did not hear Mulder as he
silently entered the room. The faceless scientist did not have time to
defend himself either when Mulder pumped three bullets into his heart. As
soon as the large being hit the floor, Mulder ran over and expertly stuck
the steel blade of a knife that he had been carrying into the base of its
neck.
Killing it silently and killing it instantly.
Noxious fumes poured out of the carcass along with a great deal of green
ooze, but the vapor could not penetrate the bio-hazard suits that the trio
were wearing.
"Scully," He said firmly, "... check his leg out. We gotta get him out
of here and fast!" As he ordered his partner around, Bill Waters stood
guard at the door, watching for more intruders.
It had taken just under one full day to make their way back from the rebel
ship to the shelter, and Krycek, in all that time had not woken up to a
fully conscious level. Mulder managed to rouse him just enough to accept a
drink of water and twice Alex came around, just barely, to relieve himself.
But then the apparition before him spoke and he knew that things had a
chance of turning out okay.
Without thinking about what he was doing, he gently pushed back Alex's
long bangs from his eyes, and felt the exposed forehead. Alex's brow was
both hot and sweaty.
"You're safe now." Mulder said as he picked up Krycek's left hand and
rubbed the back of it with the fingertips of his other hand. He slowly drew
the backs of his fingers up the length of the long limb, stopping at the
band of crinkly scar tissue that ringed the biceps muscle. "What happened
Alex? Did the aliens do this?" He asked, amazed to see the arm back.
"I've been on that ship for over a year. That's how long it took them to
grow my arm back. That faceless rebel you killed was in the process of
removing my leg to see if the regrowth cycle could be duplicated.
Krycek groaned. "Jesus Christ, my head hurts. How long have I been out of
it?" He asked. Then he said, "I need some water. I'm so thirsty."
Mulder linked his fingers through Alex's, there were many questions that he
wanted to ask Alex about the aliens and the ship. But all that could wait
for later, he had to know the answers to some other questions first. "That
night Alex. In my apartment..." He looked down, directly into Krycek's
dark green eyes, whose pupils were large and his eyes glassy from the
fevered heat. Mulder recognized the what he saw in Krycek's eyes and he
silently wished that Scully would hurry up and come to his room. "You tried
to warn me about all of this." He swept his other arm in a wide circle.
After Mulder found had out that Krycek's arm had been cut off in Tunguska—without the aid of anesthetic—he had hastily wiped the slate, though it
still was not completely clean. Even though he knew for certain that Alex
did not kill Melissa Scully, Alex had still done a lot of other very bad
things; like murdering his father to name one.
Then one night, after a year long absence from his miserable life, Alex
appeared at his apartment with a grave warning of impending doom and sealed
the truth with one simple, body trembling, electric kiss on the cheek.
Mulder had puckered his lips but did not turn his head to meet Alex's full,
bottom lip, though he had really wanted too.
Alex had called him his friend albeit in Russian, just before walking out
the door to do god knows what. But had Mulder committed the words to
memory and later on, had them translated. The slate was starting to become
a little bit cleaner now.
Mulder spent two long years pining for the renegade Russian, wondering if he
was dead or alive; wishing he would just show up. Then the virus struck and
began killing people and an alarming rate and suddenly Mulder had other
things to worry about.
Even though Mulder could hear voices and sense the thoughts of other people
deep within his cerebral cortex, he had no hint what so ever of what
disaster was on the horizon. He had no idea that Alex was telling the
truth. The aliens' virus had all but destroyed mankind, like an
exterminator wiping out a teeming nest of termites.
As it turned out, it was only after most of the people had died, that
Mulder had learn how to control the incredible gift that he suddenly found
himself saddled with. Now he had the ability to shut out the many voices
and emotions whispering inside his head; just like a tap, Mulder was able to
turn them off and on at will.
Mulder pulled his thoughts out of Alex's mind and then shut them off all
together. He sat up straighter and smiled down at the injured man. He
could see the passion and ardor contained within the depths of Alex's eyes
clearly.
"Was that okay I did that?" Mulder asked softly, referring to the kiss.
Alex would never even realize that his deepest thoughts had been read.
Especially if Mulder didn't want him to and he didn't, not yet at least.
Mulder reached out gently and tucked a strand of long dirty hair behind
Alex's elfin like ear.
Alex looked into Mulder's eyes and saw that the former agent was being
honest with him. He could detect no signs of hatred, in his loves beautiful
green eyes; no deception written in the small wrinkles at the corners of the
eyes or across his forehead.
The floodgates opened and Alex Krycek, murder, traitor, thief cried like he
hadn't done since he was a small child back in the orphanage. The tears
flowed and he released his guilt with them. He was loved by Mulder, that's
all that mattered now. Together they would find a way to defeat the alien
invaders, once and for all.
She did not want to help Krycek in any way shape or form, in fact she
contemplated letting him die. But she knew that Mulder would never forgive
her if she allowed that to happen. So it was for her partner alone that she
spent the next half an hour cleaning and closing the wound on Krycek's upper
thigh.
The very first thing she did was start an I.V. The solution dripping
slowly into Alex's arm aided him in overcoming the effects of dehydration.
Then she hastily scrubbed off the scab that had started to form over the
long cut and when Krycek hissed in pain, she couldn't help but feel a small
twinge of vindication. To close the puss filled wound, she chose to use
butterfly bandages rather than stitches to hold the infected cut together.
Thinking that they would be better for drainage purposes.
When she finally looked up, Scully saw that Mulder was not pleased as she
had been that Krycek was in pain again. She thought that she had better
hurry and finish the job.
After he was bandaged, Scully injected Krycek's IV with a mild sedative
mixed with a good strong dose of penicillin; though she was loathe to waste
good medicine on such a bad seed. The healing drugs would aid in Krycek's
recover immensely.
As she was cleaning up her mess, she noted that as soon as she had backed
away from the bed, Mulder had replaced her immediately by sitting next to
Krycek.
" After all," she reasoned to herself "...on the ship Mulder had
immediately recognized Krycek's screams and had gone to great lengths to
rescue him...
And when she had walked in earlier, all she had heard him say was 'where is
she?' but his posture, the way he was talking and touching Krycek. All of
his actions spoke of more of what he was really saying than Mulder realized
he was letting on.
Scully shook her head, determined to talk to Mulder about Krycek. But she
could see that now probably wasn't the best time, considering was too busy
fawning and fussing over the slumbering Krycek's form, pulling up the
blankets, rearranging pillows. She suddenly realized that along with her
animosity toward the Russian, there was also a little bit of jealously mixed
in with her emotions.
"She left this morning with a team to go to the surface. She and six
others are gone for the next ten days on a foraging mission. They're in
search of some more seedlings among other things. Your mother is also going
to try to locate some medicinal plants for me. She and I are going to start
collaborating on an experiment. My penicillin and antibiotics wont' stay
fresh forever..." She glanced quickly toward the closed bedroom door.
"Skinner told me to tell you." Scully replied casually. "I gave the vials
to the Lone gunmen. They are trying to find out the contents as we speak."
"Mulder." She started. "Krycek is under your roof, in your bed. What are
you planning to do with him once he's better? You can't trust him again you
know that. Right? He's a traitor and most likely still working for the
elder Spender. If that cancerous bastard is even still alive." Scully
could tell by the looking at Mulder that nothing she had to say about Krycek
would even penetrate him. She could also tell that she was pissing him off
with her bad mouthing of the Russian.
"Well, putting my personal opinion of the man aside, I'll give you a
medical one instead. Krycek..." She said Alex's name tightly, "...is likely to be out of it all of tonight and most of tomorrow. So why don't
you sleep at Walt... um... Skinners' place for tonight and I'll check
in on him periodically to administer the penicillin.
With only one bed in the small dwelling, Mulder had shared his sleeping
space with Alex every night. However, their sexual contact had been
limited to only kissing and holding each other tightly under the cozy
covers.
Both men were becoming more than a little anxious to share much more. Each
of them had fantasies that they wanted to fulfill and both knew that very
soon, they would get together to experience those fantasies. But for the
moment, they were content to cuddle. The two men passed the nights talking
about the past, and divulging their hopes for the future; finding it easier
to talk to on another in the dark.
Only once more since Alex's arrival did Mulder reach out and touch read
mind. Alex had been having a nightmare and desperate to understand his
terrors, Mulder closed his eyes and concentrated.
What he saw in the young Russians' dreams were enough to give him night
mares. He experienced through Alex's eyes and his emotions, his left arm
being cut off. With the amputation came all of the pain, as well as the
trauma of seeing your limb tossed into a roaring fire for cremation by men
who thought they were helping you. He saw his own self through Alex's eyes
and felt the younger man's heartache at having to betray the man he
loved -him, Mulder.
It was at that point that Mulder pulled out. After he had, Mulder felt a
shiver run through him, and now he could truly comprehend what Alex had gone
through all those years ago in the Siberian countryside.
Mulder also determined from Alex's thoughts that the young Russian was
genuinely reformed; he had found his way back from the dark side... and
that fact, made Mulder's heart soar... he would no longer have his doubts
about his love.
The shelter, as Mulder aptly described it, felt 'positively cavernous' at
times. Alex now could grasp what Mulder had meant by that.
As well, it didn't help that Mulder had chosen living quarters well away
from the rest of the people; all of whom slept and lived in relative
proximity to each other.
Alex started off down the hall. He was feeling anxious about being away
from the small room for the first time and yet, he was excited about
exploring his new surroundings too.
For the past year Alex had been living a very solitary life and high cement
ceilings and wide-open halls of the shelter unnerved him slightly.
With those thoughts, he shuffled down the hall and turned the corner. Alex,
engrossed inside his own mind, never heard the blow coming. And when the
punch struck the centre of his stomach, Alex thought the fist was going to
pass right through his navel.
His breath expelled out all at once and he fell to his knees, gasping and
sputtering and trying desperately to suck in some precious air into his
suddenly deprived lungs. At the moment, Alex's guts ached worse than his
leg did, and he wasn't so sure that he wouldn't get sick to his
stomach.
With his head hanging, Alex opened his eyes and saw a pair of black army
boots standing directly in front of his sight line. He slowly brought his
gaze up, starting at the boots and following the legs up the entire length
of his assailants tall body. When he reached the top and found himself
looking directly into the stern brown eyes of Walter Skinner, he grimaced
The look Skinner was giving him back was so full of hate that Alex assumed
that despite Mulder's wishes, the former A.D. was going to kill him any
ways. He tried to rise off of his knees, but before he could get more than
half way up, Skinner clipped him in the jaw causing his bottom lip spit open
on impact.
His head snapped back and blood sprayed out of his mouth leaving a large
splatter pattern on the wall beside him.
Skinner's knuckles had forced the tender tissue inside of Alex's mouth over
his teeth. Cutting the soft flesh into ribbons.
Though Alex fell back down to his knees, he refused to fall completely over.
Instead he stared up defiantly at his former boss and his glower was greeted
with another blow to the other side of his face, cutting up the insides of
his mouth further. His nose squirted blood out of both nostrils.
Alex's right eye immediately began to swell and close and deep blue bruising
was already visible under his eye as well as on the left side of his jaw
bone.
"You done yet?" Krycek said, spitting out a mouth full of blood, trying to
maintain is dignity despite still being on his knees. He had his hands
cradled in his stomach as if to protect it from another blow.
"So it's like that is it?"
Pissed off at both of them, and with his temper threatening to get away
from his control, Mulder finally said, "Do I have to remind you Scully, that
it was Alex lying there on the table about to get his leg lopped off."
Mulder swallowed hard, "He was captured trying to steal back the E.B.E. for
Christ sakes."
Both former agents continued to stare at Mulder, unconvinced. "It was Alex
who brought the vaccine into the country in the first goddamned place, the
very same vaccine the Englishman gave to me in order to save your life
with!"
It sounded so final, to both his and Scully's ears. He turned away from
the two people he thought he could trust and said to the person he knew he
could trust, "Come on Alex. I'll help you to clean up." Then without a
backwards glance at Scully or Skinner, he took Alex gently by the hand and
guided the limping man back to their small apartment
The... inextricable relationships in our lives
that are... neither accidental nor somehow in
our control either."
Fox Mulder—1998
"I was foolish enough to think that I was doing the wrong things for the
right reasons." He hmmphed softly. "Skinner and Scully will never accept me
Mulder... And I have to accept that... So do you." Still sitting on the
counter, he looked down and his feet. His mood dismal.
He couldn't remember ever seeing a lonelier expression on a person's face.
"Nothing's your fault Alex. Or mine. The battle lines were drawn long ago by
generals who wouldn't live to see the war. We were just the foot soldiers...
small fish in a great big pond."
Succumbing to his urge, Mulder leaned in and ever so gently kissed Krycek on
his tender, puffy lips. All he wanted to do was kiss away Alex's melancholy
for him.
Alex pulled back and broke off the ardent kiss. He wrapped his arms tightly
around the man standing between his legs' shoulders and pulled him into a hug.
"Oh God." He breathed into the crown of Mulder's soft, chestnut brown hair.
"To be able to hold you with two arms..." He was showing more emotion then he
had intended to. "I can't believe you want me Fox... I..." His voice
faltered, then stopped working all together; he didn't know what he trying to
say anyway.
He took a hold Alex's hand—the one that had been so pleasantly fondling his
erection—and pulled the bruised and battered man off of the counter top and
toward the bedroom.
He himself was wondering what on earth a smart, gorgeous guy like Fox Mulder
could possibly see in him. But it must be something, because the man was
looking back at him just as engrossed.
Mulder led Alex by the hand to the end of the bed where he pushed the younger
man over so that he was laying down flat on his back. He straddled Alex's
strong thighs carefully so as not to put his full weight on him and end up hurt
his healing wound.
"It's not just about your attractiveness anymore." Mulder said softly.
"It's about love, longing and craving." He Punctuated each sentence with a
random kiss, placed gently here and there, all over Alex's bruised face and
smooth chest.
"It's not just about wanting someone who should be, by all rights, unsuitable
for you. Or only about desiring the bad boy, who will bring you nothing but
heartache in the end. Nor is it merely an attraction you know you shouldn't
feel, but do."
He caressed the tops of Alex's shoulders with the tips of his fingers, talking
and kissing and caressing all at the same time; mingling the three.
"No Alex. It's about falling in love, totally... head over heels in love.
And longing for the one person that you know fits you perfectly. Mind." He
bit at Alex's left nipple, "Body." He whispered over Alex's smooth chest as
moved on to the other erect nub, "... And soul." Mulder finished his quote by
biting at the other nipple firmly and then sucking on it briefly
"I'm in love with a man, who understands my obsession and my impossible quest
so clearly, that despite the extreme personal risks to himself, he would show
up every once in a while and try to help me out."
Mulder started to gently lick his way up and over Alex's chest. "You're
everything that's wrong for me Alex and everything that's so good. I can see
the path you tried to take and the trail you were forced to follow by the
elders. And I understand it. I understand you."
Mulder sucked in Alex's earlobe and poked his tongue inside the auditory organ;
rimming it suggestively. He whispered directly into the ear, his breath was
hot and it made Alex's skin rise involuntarily with goose bumps.
"It's over Alex, all of it is over. People used us like pawns on a chess
board but in the end, it was us who got the last laugh. This is the fresh
start you've always wanted. Just you and me getting what we want in life...
each other. So you see Alex," He bit Alex's lobe and spoke with the little
piece of flesh was still firmly between his teeth, "... to answer your
question, what I see in you is a man with incredible beauty and more brains
than the average person. A former double agent with a heart full of love,
for me and me alone. No one will ever love me as much as you do Alex. I know
that for a fact."
He reached behind Mulder's and his cupped bare ass while talking, squeezing
and teasing the firm cheeks to punctuated his comments. "Your spirit soars,
lifting those around you up. You made me believe Fox; in you and your search
for a truth that I knew was out there. And when you let me in and trusted me,
even though I was a spy, you made me feel alive. For a time, you even made me
forget that I was merely the consortium's whore; doing their bidding like a
common street walker for her pimp. The day you called me Alex and asked me
for my car keys was the day that I fell in love with you."
"But then I was forced to leave you." Alex blinked and his soft, swollen
mouth made a firm line. "I gave you the keys to the car, knowing full well
what you would find. I wanted you to know what I was and how far they would
go to stop you. It was all I could do to help you at the time, until I got
stronger with knowledge. All of those times, when you beat me Fox, I knew what
was really on your mind. You wanted to get back at me for hurting you. And at
the same time you wanted to fuck me silly." Alex raised his eyebrow and
grinned. "You hated and loved me at the same time."
Mutually breaking apart, Alex said, "Let's talk more later..." Then he
pulled Mulder down again and thrust up, rubbing both of their erections
together.
What he couldn't say to Alex was that the dark bruise that had formed in the
centre of his stomach—the result of Skinner's large fist hitting him there—
bothered Mulder to have to look at it. But not because it was ugly, but
because it as put there by Skinner and in truth, the fist size bruise reminded
him of the lonely Russians' isolation from the others within the shelter.
As his gaze moved north, down along Alex's strong even spine, Mulder could see
the bottom two ribs of Alex's cage standing out clearly, and he made a mental
note to keep feeding his lover better than the aliens had.
When his eyes reached Alex's ass, Mulder ran the palm of his hand over one firm
cheek then the other. Greeting the perfectly rounded forms excitedly. He
thought that Alex had the most perfect butt that he had ever laid eyes on, or
touched for that matter; male or female.
Tight and round, he couldn't help but use both hands to gently kneed the
fleshy twin mounds before separating them, exposing Alex's perfect, pink bud.
Mulder reluctantly released Alex's ass and reached over to open the night stand
drawer where he pulled a small bottle of vanilla scented oil out of it.
The oil had come from a chain of shops that specialized in all organic
ingredients and no testing on animals. Which was a moot point now, considering
there were more animals than people alive any ways. Mulder shrugged and
squeezed the bottle, drizzling an aromatic trail across Alex's shoulders and
down his spine. He grinned wickedly when the younger man jumped at the
coldness of the pleasant smelling oil. Dropping the bottle near his leg on the
bed, Mulder laid his strong, firm hands on Alex's warm skin and began to
rub.
He very carefully and very lovingly worked the slick oil into Alex's entire
back. But eventually Mulder's hard-on dictated where the massage would lead
to, and his hands, obeying his brain, ventured lower.
He poured a little more oil over Alex's left cheek then took great pleasure
at working it in. Fully erect, Mulder ran his index finger through the small
crease that divided Alex's ass and was encouraged to probe further when Alex
purred his appreciation to the gentle touches.
With his hand still slick with oil, Mulder gently slipped in one finger to the
second knuckle. And as soon as that was fully accepted, he pushed it in
further and then added another slippery digit. Slowly, he worked his two
fingers in and out of Alex's tight opening, making the already relaxed man even
more pliable.
Finally, satisfied that his lover was completely ready, Mulder poured a couple
of drops of oil onto his cock and spread the slick fluid by hastily stroking
himself. Once he was prepared, he stretched out fully over top of Alex's body
and husked into his ear, "Are you ready for this?"
Alex groaned his appreciation and raised his hips in order to give Mulder
easier access.
It had been a long time since either one of them had made love and Mulder knew
that neither one of them would be able last very long... this time around.
Snaking one hand around Alex's flat stomach, Mulder engulfed the younger man's
considerable heat with-in his fist, squeezing until it fit inside his hand
snugly.
Mulder clamped his mouth down on the side of Alex's neck and suckled on the
flesh like a newborn baby with a bottle as his body stiffened with pleasure.
And now he knew that Alex was going to say ' consortium fathers,
scientists and perverts' but changed his mind. The Russian was so complex,
and had lived a life that Mulder couldn't even begin to comprehend. So
promises aside, and knowing full well that morally that he had no right to read
Alex's memories without his permission, Mulder reached inside the deep recesses
of Alex's grey matter once again, and found a faded memory orphanage from when
he was seven.
He knew that Alex was two years younger than he, making him 38 to his current
40. So Mulder figured that he himself had to have been about nine years old at
the time of Alex's recalled memory of his father. He could see from Alex's
memory that the little Alex hadn't known who Bill Mulder was. In fact, the
grown up Alex didn't even realize it now that it had been Bill Mulder who had
spoken in front of him that day.
However it was clear that the little Alex known what the senior Spender was
all about. The boy had easily recognized the smoker's face but did not know
his name and had understood enough to know that Spender would satisfy his lust
—to Mulder's extreme relief—elsewhere.
Mulder pondered what Spender meant by the 'he reminds me of a little Fox—
it's in the eyes' comment. He sighed softly, the memory was old, and like
most early memory's it was faded and could have happened just a little bit
different than a small boys' perception of events. The words could have been
said a little bit differently, but it still left Mulder to wonder.
Mulder comforted the restless man by planting the suggestion that he had made
it to the other side of the field and was now standing in a meadow of wild
flowers. The sun was shining and his pursuers were long gone; he was safe in
the tall, sweet-smelling glade.
Leaving Alex's subconscious dreaming, Mulder delved back into the slumbering
man's remembrances. He found the memory of the caning and pulled it forward so
that he could see it. He covered his eyes with his left arm and replayed the
experience in his own mind; like watching a video.
The large fire place was keeping both the spacious sitting room and the older
men warm as they sipped napoleon brandy.
The director put his snifter of liqueur down and stood up slowly. He went to
where the worker was forcing the 12-year-old boy to kneel. Without giving a
warning, he slapped Alex across the face, leaving a perfectly formed, bright
red hand print in his wake.
He scowled at the American, then the turned his look of disgust on the
director, who was momentarily choking on his brandy at hearing Alex's
admission.
He constricted his hand again to make his point then he let go and grabbed
Alex by the hair on the back of his head. Spender yanked back his head and
forced the boy to look up at him
.
"Ohhh,Alexander. So young..." He handed his cigarette off to the worker
without looking at the man. "...so willful and full of false bravado."
Spender looked into Alex eyes for a second before saying, "So... so...
pretty... No wonder the director is fond of you..."
The truth was, Spender was shaken by Alex's incredible perceptiveness. The
recalcitrant boy was absolutely correct, he was too young for his tastes; for
now.
The worker pulled him out the door but Spender could still hear the angry
boy's last words..."I don't care what you do to me..."
Spender smiled. Of course the boy would care... pain was always a great
gentler in insolent, defiant boys...
Nothing Alex had done in the past would matter, nothing. Not the murdering,
not the acts of treason not even all of the lying. Nothing.
Alex Krycek.
He hugged his mother lightly and then let her pass through the threshold.
"I'm so glad to see you." He said as he held her hand and led her to the
kitchen. "Coffee?" He asked.
"Oh hello..." He said cheerily, genuinely pleased to finally be meeting her
in person. He smiled brightly to Mrs. Mulder then turned his infectious grin
on Mulder. "Hi." He said to him.
He knew her face and who she was of course, but Alex had never actually met
Teena Mulder before. He couldn't fathom why she was staring at him in such a
manner. Searching his memory, he could not recall a single event in which they
might have crossed paths, so why was she looking at him so? He straightened
up, cleared his throat and looked to Mulder for an explanation; puzzled and
uncomfortable under the older woman's gaze.
Mulder tried to talk to his mother, but she cut him off by raising her hand.
Alex scowled and vowed to himself to kill Carl Spender, all he could hope for
now was that the old smoke stack was still among the living so he could shoot
him. Alex turned to Mulder, whom, in his mind had the appearance of a man who
had eaten a bad batch of shrimp at the wedding buffet.
Mulder couldn't believe that when he had finally found his soul mate and worked
up the courage to be with that person, his true love was not only a man but his
brother on top of it all. The gods were definitely conspiring against him.
Suddenly his stomach heaved and his gorge would not stay down any longer.
Mulder ran to the bath room where he barely got the door shut before bending
over the toilet and vomiting violently into it.
But after Mrs. Mulder had left, for him to see the look of complete disgust on
Mulder's beautiful face, that was what had hurt the very most. And now to
have to hear Mulder vomiting over what they had done together... Alex knew
that it was he and their freakish relationship that was making Mulder sick.
Simply put—he turned Mulder's stomach now.
Rather than giving Mulder a chance to decide between mother and brother/lover,
Alex decided to take the choice away by leaving, though he suspected that
Mulder's mother would win out over him anyway.
He heard the toilet flush and the tap turn on. Stung and angry, Alex turned
around and hurried from the kitchen. He grabbed his jacket off of the couch
and flung the door open, running past Scully without even acknowledging that he
had seen her. He hurried down the semi-dark corridor not looking back.
She was really surprised to find out that Mulder was finally in love.
Discovering that it was another man that he loved was not as startling as who
the man was that he loved.
Loving another man, well that was no big deal, that part she was okay with.
But to fall for the likes of Alex Krycek, now that seemed impossible.
She dropped down in the arm chair across from her former partner and asked
bluntly, "Are you sleeping with Krycek?" She tried to sound neutral but she
couldn't quite keep the disgust out of her voice.
Scully was assuming the worst about Alex before she even had all
of the facts and Mulder resented that. He realized now, that Alex had been
right that day in the kitchen after the beating when he said that he wouldn't
be accepted.
Scully would never change her mind about Alex; she would not allow him to
change. Mulder breathed deeply, trying to control his anger. "Thanks for the
advice Scully." He said evenly, back in control of his temper again, "But who
I fuck is none of your business." He deliberately used graphic language,
knowing that she didn't care for such profanity.
But he was not too concerned about his mother, he would go to her later and
try to explain things to her. And as for Scully, well they to, would work
things out; they always did.
It was Alex who worried him at the moment. After all, the bomb his mother had
dropped affected him to. The poor guy hadn't even known who his father was up
until thirty minutes ago.
Alex had never known about the circumstances surrounding his birth; no one had
ever bothered telling him. The Russian could not control the hows' or the
whys' pertaining to his birth. He had no choice in the matter, in fact growing
up, Krycek had never been given a choice, in anything.
Mulder groaned, everything was such a mess. Alex had walked out on him and
Mulder didn't know what he was going to do. After he had been sick, when he
was washing his hands, he had realized that Alex must have felt the same way as
he did, only he didn't express it by puking his guts out.
Try as he might, Mulder could not just shut off his carnal love for Alex and
as perverted as it sounded, Mulder realized that he didn't want too.
It was not as if they had ever lived as siblings, in fact, they had never
even met on another until six years ago.
"So what's so wrong with being in love?" Mulder asked himself.
He laughed at that thought. He was so fucked up.
And then he thought, "Alex must be too. Poor guy probably didn't know what to
think, except that I was rejecting him. How could he not? Especially with me
in the can spewing."
Mulder wanted Alex to come back, that much he knew for sure. The details of
their shared parentage didn't matter, nothing did. Not Scully and her opinion,
not his mother and her opinion. He loved Alex and wanted to be with him.
They were happy together and brothers or not, no one had a right to tell them
that their love was wrong.
"Besides," he reasoned to himself, "there aren't enough people left to give a
shit whether or not we're incestuous."
Mulder mused over these thoughts and others; deciding that he no longer cared
what other people would think. He just wanted to be happy, he had a right to
be. And if it was Alex Krycek who made him feel that way then so be it.
Reaching out, he quietly touched the inside Alex's mind, breaking his promise
easily.
Mulder kept concentrating and he picked up on some of Alex's other, more
subtle emotions. He could feel Alex's self-doubt about his own worthiness in
society, along with the pain of just not fitting in anywhere. Alex was
despondent over having not only been lied to his whole life, but living a
complete lie.
The Russian didn't know what he should do—leave the F.B.I. building or crawl
back to Mulder and beg to be a part of his life, on any terms and in any
capacity that Mulder wanted.
Mulder stood up, his mind finally up.
Half brother or not, he and Alex would continue to be lovers', no one ever had
to know. Mulder was pretty sure his mother would not be blabbing that fact out
any time soon. He pulled himself together and just as he was about to leave to
go and find his lover, there was a soft knock on the door. Half hoping it was
Alex, Mulder pulled the door open. To his disappointment it was not his lover,
but Kelly, the young woman who worked in the gardens with his mom. Hiding his
feelings under a false smile he said to her, "Hi Kelly."
Alex Krycek.
With one last wistful glance at the empty desks, Mulder passed through the
threshold into the large room and crossed to the other side. In a small
alcove, sitting cross-legged atop of an out of the way desk, was Alex. Mulder
saw him first and stopped; his presence partially hidden by a filing cabinet.
He observed his half brother from a close distance, noting that Alex had chosen
the very same desk to sit on that Mulder had used way back in '94.
Alex was wearing only his T-shirt, even though it was very cold in the room, he
had tossed his jacket carelessly over the back of a nearby chair.
Perched in the very middle of the desk top, Alex's head was bent and was
concentrating intensely on the task that he was performing. Which meant that
he was busily cutting neatly into the tender skin on the inside of his left
forearm, using a Swiss army knife to make the incisions. The cut he had just
finished creating matched three others that he had made in the same area.
All four cuts were about one inch length and ran vertically up his inner arm.
The cuts were deep and all were bleeding copiously. Mulder was concerned by
the wounds, but he assumed that the Russian was probably an expert at hurting
himself in this way. So Alex most likely hadn't hit anything major; or the
blood would be pumping out instead of merely running out like a dripping
faucet.
However, Mulder understood the physiology behind the self inflicted wounds
very well. By cutting himself, Alex, unable to find the right words, was
expressing what he felt on the inside by physically showing it on the outside.
Alex had no control over the most recent turn of events, so he chose to take
control of what he could and let his blood flow.
The way he hurt when he was cut and bleeding, Alex at least could understand
the pain, it was tangible, real. And in someways perhaps, even a little
cathartic for the confused Russian.
Bringing up his hands, Alex rubbed at his sore eyes with the heels of his
palms. After he had blinked his vision clear he said coldly to his lover, "I
thought that I made you sick to be around."
"Alex, listen... no listen to me..." He said as Alex tried to pull away, "...Please." Alex stopped struggling and Mulder had him take over holding the
tissues.
"I wasn't sick because of you, but because of the new spin that's been put on
our relationship.
"Oh Fox..." He said finally. "I was so afraid that you'd leave me."
"You and I will be together forever..." He said, leaning down and absently
kissing Alex at the crown of his hair, adding softly, "...keeping our dirty
little secret between us..."
As she waited for the medicine to take her, she stared up at the plain grey
ceiling above her head and thought about her only son.
When Bill's bastard son had come into the kitchen all cheer and smiles, she had
seen Fox's face light up immediately. That damnable Russian had cast a net
over her only son and reeled him in. Very much like Natalia Krycek had done
to her husband; the boys' life time ago.
She wondered what it was with the Krycek's that gave them the ability to steal
that which was not theirs to take in the first place. It seemed that not only
did the mother and son Krycek come out on top, but both ended up looking like
the victim too.
After she had told Fox about Alex and their real relationship to each other her
son had looked horror stricken at the revelation while the Krycek boy had
simply looked like a frightened rabbit waiting for the eagle to strike him
dead.
Immediately after she had delivered up her ultimatum, Teena could see that her
beautiful boy would choose his new found brother over her; his long suffering
and secret keeping mother. And why not?
Fox could finally be loved by a family member who did not hold Samantha's
abduction against him. Contrary to what Fox believed, she genuinely did not
know the real truth behind Sam's disappearance, only that the men of the
syndicate as well as her husband were somehow behind it all.
And try as she might not to, she still could not stop herself from laying
some of the blame on her son for not doing more to try to stop her baby girl
from being stolen.
Teena Mulder had no idea that there was carnal love between her son and Krycek
but she could tell that there definitely was 'something' between them. And,
in her anger she had further fueled that 'something' by revealing what she
knew. It was not a secret to her that Fox had always wanted a brother and now
he had him.
Her son no longer needed her; it was time to go.
Teena yawned and started to feel sleepy, signaling the end was fast
approaching. Reaching out she plucked the picture that she had sitting at her
bedside of Samantha and Fox as young children. Clutching the old photograph
tightly to her bosom, she prayed for forgiveness from both her son and
daughter.
With sleep finally claiming her and with her children laying over her heart,
Teena Mulder crossed over the threshold of the living into the world of the
dead. Right into Bill Mulder's warm embrace.
Watching Alex closely, Mulder grinned to himself; not the easiest thing to do
considering his lips were still wrapped around an erect cock. He amplified
the suction his mouth was applying and while one hand vigorously pumped over
Alex's cock the other matched the pace and drew the single invading digit in
and out of his lover.
'Fuck yeah and oh yesss,' those were the only words that Mulder had understood,
as the rest of his lover's whispered ramblings had all been in the Russian
dialect.
"It's about a serial... Oh yeah, just like that Fox... " Krycek lost his train
of thought for a few seconds but then managed to pick it up again and finish
his sentence. "....it's about the Mounties trying to find a serial killer...
Ohhhh.." He groaned and tossed the book aside. "Besides,... " panted Alex,
"It's your damn book!" Mulder and his talented fingers won out over the novel.
First they talked further about Mulder's incredible gift of knowing what was
in an others mind further but then eventually, the conversation turned to their
father.
Mulder had filled Alex in as much as he could about their dad, then found
himself trying to assuage the Russians grief over having killed his own father
in a forced act of 'patricide.'
Hours later, all talked out, both men promised to never bring up the subject of
their specific relationship ever again. Both agreeing that it was best to
leave the skeletons buried, where they belonged.
The events of the day, from the argument to the impassioned loving making
sessions afterwards had finally taken its toll on Alex. He let out a big sigh
and fully contented, fell asleep.
Mulder kissed the top of his lover's head and pulled the slumbering man in
closer to his body. He shut his eyes and with thoughts for no one other than
Alex Krycek, Mulder drifted off too.
"Mother, it's me Fox." He said softly as he pushed her bedroom door open.
Poking his head inside, he saw that his mother was laying on the bed. For a
second he had thought that she was napping, and he froze, not wanting to
disturb her. But on a second glace he realized that her face was a ghostly
white. Almost blue.
Mulder screamed out "Mom!" as he rushed over to her bedside. He put two
fingers to where her pulse point should be in her neck, he held them there for
a seconds then yanked his hand away as if he had been stung. He could feel
nothing at all. Her skin was cold to the touch.
OH GOD!
Mulder laid the palm of his hand against her cheek and it was then that he
knew, deep down, that there was nothing he could do. She was already gone and
he was coming to talk things out with her too late.
Tears spilled from his eyes and with his vision blurred, he picked up the phone
and pushed the two digit extension for the med. lab.
When he made no motion to leave, Scully shrugged her shoulders and penetrated
Mrs. Mulder's flesh with her scalpel.
Why she chose to die, well that was another matter. Leaving no note in which
to explained her actions, Mrs. William Mulder, with a photo of her beloved
children clutched possessively to her chest slipped away quietly into a
peaceful, infinitious sleep.
Yawning again, Scully picked up the file containing the information and
conclusions surrounding Teena Mulder's death and took it with her to her own
living quarters. Everything inside of the file could wait six more hours.
Alex knew that it wasn't Mulder on the other side because it was his apartment
after all, so why would he knock to enter?
He yanked the door open and was surprised to see Dana Scully standing there
looking up at him expectantly. He stared back at her for a minute then stood
aside and said blandly holding the door open. "Come in."
"Mulder... " he stated, "... hasn't' been back here since before his moth... "
Alex stumbled on his words, but he took a deep breath and continued, "... since
his mother passed away."
"Oh?" Scully parroted again, this time with just slightly less sarcasm than
before. "Can you give him a message for me then?" She asked Krycek, no
politeness in her voice at all.
"I'm sure..." Krycek said to her coldly, "...that you'll see him before me.
So why don't you save it until then"
He could tell by the look on the red heads face that she didn't appreciate
being spoken too in that tone of voice and he could have cared less.
"Now if you don't mind I'm busy." He added rudely, wondering why he ever
worried about what she had thought of him in the first place.
Because it matters to Mulder.
Alex tried keeping Mulder from his thoughts, but he wasn't doing a very good
job of it.
Scully took the obvious hint and left without saying another word,
unintentionally slamming the door behind herself.
He'd had small, fleeting moments in the past where he was happy, but all of
those times involved Mulder. Alex had decided to leave, again, because this
time he knew for certain that Fox must blame him for his mother's death.
Mulder didn't say so verbally, he didn't need too, his actions did the speaking
for him.
Not coming home proved to Alex just how much Mulder faulted him. Alex thought
that if Mulder was truly concerned over him then he would have read his
thoughts—promise or not—and learned that he was intending to leave and then
come back to the apartment; either to stop him or to help him pack.
Alex had a plan. He wasn't just going to wonder the surface aimlessly. No.
His plan, if it worked out, would ultimately make Fox happy again. Truly
happy. He did, after all, owe Mulder his life. So the least he could do was
try to find Samantha and give her back to him.
At least Mulder would have the sibling he really cared about back. Samantha
could not replace his mother, but Alex thought that it was a start, the two
could mourn her passing together. After they were reunited Alex planned to
make his own way in what was left of the world.
But for right now he had to go and see the 'gunmen' to work out some travel
details then, he was off to the armory for some protection against whatever and
whoever was still living on the surface.
Then she left, amazed that she had defended Krycek, if only loosely. She had
a sneaking suspicion that Teena Mulder killed herself because she knew the
truth to her son's and Krycek's relationship. In a time of very little hope,
people despaired easily and sought the drastic way out of a situation that
they thought were otherwise hopeless.
Perhaps Mrs. Mulder, unable to forgive her son for loving her ex husband's
killer took the easy way out rather than to deal with complications of a gay
son and his murderous lover.
How fitting that while he was contemplating, yet again, about he and Alex and
their complicated relationship, that Phil Collin's soulful voice would be
singing 'Against all odds'. Mulder could certainly appreciate the irony.
"Take a look at me now, cause there's just an empty space, but you coming
back to me is against all odds and that's what I've got to face."
His eyes had rested on Alex and from across a crowded room, and he had been
instantly attracted to the handsome agent. It didn't matter to him that the
agent was a several years older than he.
And though they had never even spoken, Josh after that day, always dated men,
who resembled Alex; dark hair and light eyes.
Never in a million years did he ever think that he would be standing this
close to him. Of course, Josh had no idea of whom or what Krycek used to be.
"Come see me anytime. I have anything you might need." He added.
Alex tucked a first aid kit into a large pocket on the side of his pants. "I know it was over a year ago, but I thought that if the smoker was referring to
your sister Samantha then maybe she's still alive. I wanted to go and see if I
could find her and if it was your sister I heard, then bring her back to you..." He hesitated for a second "...Well..." then he said finally, "...I just thought that you would rather
have your real family here with you at a time like this rather than your
bastard half brother and lover."
He licked his bottom lip and sucked it into his mouth. He released it and said
tiredly, "I'm just tired of the games Fox. You say 'go away', then 'come
here.' I don't know what to think anymore." He stared into Mulder's unreadable
eyes, and when it was apparent that Mulder was not going to respond to him,
Alex turned around and started to walk away.
Alex shook his head and said with a hint of anger in his voice, "I can tell by
the way your acting and from the tone of your voice, that despite all of your
previous declarations, you do not in fact, trust me."
He turned and started to leave but then he stopped and slowly rotated around.
"Is there even an 'us' any more Fox? Was there ever? Or was it just the sex
that you wanted?"
When Mulder did not immediately answer him, Alex nodded his head and said
knowingly, "I see. I guess not. Your love for me was only momentary I
suppose; something that you could turn off and on. "
Krycek searched Mulder's face, then whispered, "Good bye Fox. If I find
Samantha I'll bring her back, other wise....." He left the sentence dangling
and started stalking away.
Alex turned around but did not walk back, toward Mulder; his hardened
expression softened when he saw the look on Mulder's face. Suddenly he stalked
over to where Mulder was standing, and pulling him into a hug, he kissed him
softly on the mouth.
"Take care of your mother." Alex said huskily, "If Samantha can be found I'll
find her and bring her back to you. I promise. Between the gunmen and myself,
we have a pretty good place to start."
"No." Said Mulder adamantly, refusing to let Alex escape from his embrace.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Mulder asked nervously, as the Russian was
attempting to pick the lock to the front door of the posh Washington apartment
building.
"For the last time. Yes." Alex said, trying to concentrate. It had been a
long time since he had been forced to break into a dwelling. "I'm sure.
Langley and the boys did... well I'm not sure what they did but they thought
that this would be a good place to start 'cause it shows that the penthouse has
an independent power source, and this is where the smoke stack used to live.
It would make sense to try here first... Oh fuck it!" Alex yelled, frustrated
that the lock would not give. If the door had been a glass front, he would
have merely stuck his elbow through it and unlocked the door that way. But the
double doors, whose glass was long since gone, was sealed over with plywood.
Alex braced his arms at the side of the door and began to kick at the strong
sheets of lumber.
Mulder stood there, amazed at Alex's recuperative powers. A month and a half
ago he had been found half dead, starving and 30 pounds underweight. Now he'd
put that weight back on plus some. Every day, Alex worked hard at recreating
the muscle definition that he'd once had.
Obviously the heavy leg weights were working, because on the sixth angry kick,
the nails gave way about an inch.
Mulder finally came out of his trance and joined Alex, and between the two of
them neither the plywood nor the nails had a chance of holding up.
Mulder followed, but before he did, he propped the door open using a bit of
splintered wood. Ensuring that if they had to run for it, they would be able
to just shove the heavy steel door open and go, instead of fumbling with a
knob. Using his own small flashlight, he followed Alex's lead. Thirty stories
were a long way up.
He dangled the single hair over the top of the metal knob and immediately the
red strand was attracted to it. Both men, completely silent, heard a small
crackle as the current of electricity traveled toward the hair.
Mulder looked at Alex puzzled.
"Wow, you saved my ass." Whispered Mulder. "I could have been shocked." He
kissed Krycek on the lips but pulled away before it could go any further than
that. Between the two of them, it didn't take very much of anything before one
or the other of them found an excuse to make love; again.
He raised his eyebrows, "A boy scout is always prepared." He said to Mulder
and then set to work on removing the long pins from the hinges. Like a doctor
operating, Krycek just handed Mulder the pins without looking back, knowing
that his partner was there to assist him.
Once done, before actually pulling the door open, Alex turned around and asked,
"You ready?" He pulled out his gun out from the holster.
Alex stuck the tip of the screw driver between the door and the frame and using
the tool like a crow bar, the door swung open then fell with a crash. Nothing
threatening to their relief, waited for them on the other side.
Alex shook his head, amazed this was all the hardware that was protecting the
entrance especially, considering a shape shifter would be able to snap the
stainless steel chains like they were made of soft gold links. Ready for
anything everything, again Krycek fiddled inside his vest and this time, a
small hand held metal snips appeared. He grinned at Mulder then deftly snapped
the last two pieces of 'security' barring their way.
Mulder watched the rise and fall of Spender's slightly humped back for a few
seconds as years of anger bubbled to the surface. He double checked the safety
on his gun then walked up to the man and stuck the barrel of his automatic into
Spenders back.
After poking him hard, once in the shoulder, he stepped back a few paces and
waited for lucifer himself to turn around and face him.
Spender brought his weathered hands up slowly and pulled off the head phones.
"Since when have you two been on first name basis?" Spender asked.
"I don't know." Mulder lied easily. "Out somewhere looking for a cure to the
virus."
Mulder lowered his gun to his side and stared emotionlessly at the corpse. He
felt nothing. Not elation, not remorse, just nothing. He heard a soft click
and spun toward the noise. The lighting in the room was very dim, and as he
looked toward the direction from which the noise had come from, Mulder saw a
dark-haired woman, emerging from the shadows of an adjoining room.
Mulder was shocked into stillness at seeing his beloved sister; his emotions
were running amok. He was amazed that Samantha was still alive and he knew
all along that the old man was lying to him when he said she was dead; lying
was what the smoker did best. It dawned on him that she had called that
malignant old bastard 'Father.'
As she stood there staring at him like he was a bug under a microscope, Mulder
could not believe—would not believe—that she would actually shoot him.
Though judging by the look on her face, there really wasn't any doubt that she
intended to kill him.
First Alex plucked a large compress and tore the packaging open, "Here," He
said to Mulder, "... put this on the cut. I'll be right back." He pressed
the thick cotton directly onto the wound and as soon as Mulder had his hand on
the bandage, he crawled over to where Samantha lay, still unconscious.
The first thing he did was to grab up her weapon and shove it inside his coat
pocket. He hid away his taser in another pocket on his pants and then
stretching, grabbed a corner of his first aid kit and pulled it toward
himself.
He pulled the small syringe out and expertly pushed it into one of Samantha's
large veins on the back of her hand. The drug in the dart was a strong
narcotic meant to induce sleep. The clear liquid was automatically drawn into
her bloodstream by her own body's natural pressure. Once that was done, Alex
tossed aside the needle, rolled her onto her side and then went back to attend
his lover.
"Let me look at that." Alex said as he gently pulled the pad away from
Mulder's forehead. As soon as he had done that the wound immediately began to
bleed again. Alex got a good look at it before the cut was once again obscured
by Mulder's crimson blood. The gash was five inches long and right to the
bone, he was only consoled that the bullet had only torn the flesh and not
penetrated deeper. The fact that the errant bullet had not entered Fox's hard
skull was nothing short of a miracle. Still the wound was nasty and would have
to be stitched, here in the field by him.
"Sorry Fox." Said Alex, replacing the bloody pad. "That's going to have to
get looked after before we take off."
"Ohh, you mean we get to play doctor together." Mulder winked at Alex, even
though it hurt him to do it.
Alex pulled three packages of pre-threaded sutures out of the kit, along with
an antiseptic liquid and a powder that topically numbed the skin. He searched
and then found a small, single dose needle of Novocain, which would come in
handy for when he did the actual stitching.
First thing Alex did was to arrange everything that he would need on Mulder's
chest, then he turned on the small flashlight and held it in his teeth like it
was a large, Cuban cigar. The bright light made it so much easier for him to
see the wound.
Alex applied another generous amount of antiseptic and after drying all around
with gauze he covered up the cut. He gathered up the used and bloody medical
supplies and tossed them into a corner; it wasn't likely that smokey was going
to get up any time soon and complain about the mess.
Then he helped Mulder to sit up and gave him a bottle of water to drink, along
with two strong pills for the pain.
"Well, I'm done. That should hold until we get back."
Alex smiled at his lover and kissed Mulder in the middle of his forehead,
just below the clean white bandage.
"Whoa..." Alex said, "Just take it slowly." He led the slightly wobbly man
to the wall and had him lean against it. "Here stay here and hold this while I
get Sam up." He handed his flashlight to Mulder who took it.
While Mulder got his bearings back, Alex searched for a few things to take for
Samantha. He put her coat on and stuffed the few belongings he had gathered
into a small canvass bag that he had found, figuring that if they missed
anything this time around they could always come back, later.
He handed the bag to Mulder and then squatted down and hoisted Samantha up and
over the back of his shoulders. Alex was glad that he wouldn't have to carry
her too far, only back to the ATV that they had hidden about a kilometer away
from the building. From there she could be propped up in front of one of them
for the trip home. The drug that Samantha had been given insured that she
would not be waking up before the men reached the home base.
Mulder had lost a sister who was a little girl and had her returned to him as a
woman. There would be nothing left of that pig-tailed lass for Fox to remember.
Not to mention that Samantha believed that Spender Sr. was her father.
Therefore, she would see all others as a threat, traitors even. Mrs. Mulder
might have been accepted by her daughter, but without her here to help ease the
woman's way back into her brothers life, a harmonious reunion might prove to be
impossible.
In Samantha's eyes, Fox Mulder was a strange man who could not be trusted, not
her blood sibling.
Alex wished that he could spare Mulder the pain of finding all this out, but he
could not. All he could do was to be there to help him through the inevitable
fallout of the situation.
Considering how unstable their previously rock solid relationship had been
lately, her 'questions' might just split the two of them apart
permanently.
Why Samantha had agreed to see him, he wasn't exactly sure. Maybe it was
because that she sensed that he too, was an outsider to the close-knit
inhabitants of the shelter.
She had adamantly refused to see Mulder at all costs, along with Scully.
Though, at Alex's insistence, she had allowed one of Scully's assistants to
examine her general health. Which was good.
But both Scully and Mulder were banned from her presence. Right from the
beginning, however, she had welcomed Alex even after he had told her the
truth about his and Fox's relationship. Skipping over the bit about him and
Fox being brothers of course. And Sam had accepted his honesty.
After all, he had been programmed, courtesy of the syndicate, to be a
soldier; trained from early childhood for it. He knew what it was like to
be at the mercy and control of others.
Had Mulder been present, he would have been both surprised and pleased with
Alex's natural abilities as a therapist.
After all, Spender had started paying Alex midnight visits the day he had
turned fourteen; the magic number. Like the young, still defiant Alex
predicted so many years ago to the old man's face.
And from the night of his birthday on, whenever Spender was at the
orphanage/training centre, Alex was forced to endure his 'company.'
The visits were neither friendly nor were they gentle. And they never,
ever took place by the light of day. No, Spender always had Alex sent to
his bedchambers in the middle of the night.
And while a guard sat outside of the door listening to Alex's pleas and
cry's for mercy, the old man would take the teenager brutally and always
with some form of violence; punishing the lad for being so strong willed and
outspoken.
"I understand exactly how you feel." A single tear rolled slowly down his
cheek, for Samantha and for his own lost childhood as he kept on soothing
his little sister.
Alex was responsible for that, and it was something she would never
forget. Samantha was feeling so much better that she had even agreed to
see Mulder, to talk to him, soon. Though she wasn't quite ready just yet to
face him. But none the less, she had promised Alex that she would meet with
him her brother she was ready.
In fact, she thought that she was strong enough to sit down tomorrow
morning, and write her brother a letter, explaining some things to him.
He turned his small flashlight on and started for home. Just about home,
Alex pushed open the door to the stair well and started down the short
flight. On the landing, between the floors, Alex was suddenly grabbed—again—this time from behind.
Once in the stomach and three times in the face, all three punches landed
close to each other up the left side of Alex's face.
Skinner hit Krycek as many times as the Russian had hit him a few years ago;
when the roles were reversed and it had been Skinner himself on the choking
end of the garrote and Krycek doing the hitting. Done, Skinner nodded to
Sparks who then released his hold on Krycek.
Suddenly disgusted by his act of retribution; Skinner shoved Alex away from
himself and jumped up quickly to his feet.
Good.
The whole ordeal had only taken five minutes and through it all, Alex had
remained silent, what was there to say? He believed Skinner when he said
that they were even now. Alex had witnessed the man's face flash, for just
an instant, with regret for his actions.
So he guessed that meant no more late night/early morning ambushes.
Truthfully, Alex had half expected another thrashing. Anticipation was
what killed the cat, not curiosity in the Russian's opinion. And now that
it was over with, he could relax.
Alex just didn't know what he was going to tell Mulder about the incident.
He knew his lover would be pissed off and raise holy hell. But Alex really
just wanted to drop the whole subject. Maybe he could hide the bruising
and swelling for a few days.
Yeah, right!
Alex continued on his way to the apartment, and once there, he very quietly
cleaned himself up. He popped a few aspirins for the pain and thanked his
lucky stars that Skinner hadn't hit him harder, otherwise his jaw could have
been easily broken. Alex suspected that Skinner had intentionally held his
strong arm in check.
Standing shirtless and staring into the mirror, Alex gingerly touched the
line of purple that ran from the centre of his chin up the left side of his
jaw bone, right to his ear. The mark in the corner of his mouth, stood out,
perfectly round and violet purple. The abraded marks left by the garrote
stood out and were as obvious as a string of pearls around a bare neck.
There was no point in worrying about what Mulder would say tonight any ways
and tomorrow would come soon enough. He pulled off the rest of his clothes
and snuggled in behind Mulder.
The men fit together nicely, just like two puzzle pieces. He sighed
contented as Mulder's warmth slowly began to heat up his own chilled body.
8:15 AM
For just a second or two, he thought that Alex had not come home from Sam's
place and a small ache of jealousy prodded at him.
He himself had been working quite late with the gunmen in their makeshift
lab. Scully had given him some preliminary findings about the virus, which
he took right to the three geeks. He had arrived home to an empty apartment
but Mulder had read the note left for him and knew that Alex was visiting
with Sam again.
It hurt him that she still would not accept him, or even see him. But what
hurt him even more was that she had so easily taken to Alex; perhaps
because he was as much of a stranger to this place as she was. By mutual
agreement, both he and Alex had decided not to tell Sam of Alex's relation
to her yet.
Mulder rolled to his back and listened, he could hear now, Alex shuffling
around in the tiny bathroom down the hall. He rubbed absently at his early
morning erection, thoughts of Alex at the forefront of his musings.
Suddenly missing his lover, and wondering if he could talk the younger man
into another shower that morning, Mulder flung back the blankets on the bed
and went to find Alex.
Spying on Alex was something Mulder liked to do every now and again.
Usually the Russian was so guarded, so in control of every action and every
emotion that it was only during sex, or the fleeting moments like this, that
Mulder could catch Alex just being Alex.
His focus wandered from Alex's towel-covered ass up his well muscled back,
to his reflection in the mirror. Which Alex himself, seemed to be studying.
He gently felt around at the puffiness along his jaw, wincing when he pushed
too hard on the black and blue. Picking up the mug of shaving soap he
dipped the wet brush in and worked it all around. Alex looked at himself in
the mirror again and just as he was poised to brush on the lather, he froze
mid-motion. The bathroom door slowly creaked open to reveal Fox, looking
very annoyed at him.
He shrugged his shoulders, there was no point in being pissed off at the
man. Like himself, fox Mulder was pigheaded and stubborn, there was no use
trying to change the man now.
10:00 AM
Suddenly her favorite drink, instead of being welcoming, repulsed her. She
dumped the brew down the sink and opted for just plain water instead.
They hadn't been alone together since that day in the armory, when Mulder
busted up their discussion. He had however managed to see Alex here and
there. Whenever they ran into each other, they would exchange small talk
and even some mild flirtation. But the ever present, disapproving Mulder
seemed to be Alex's shadow these days.
None of that mattered however, just as long as he could see that beautiful
face once in the course of a normal day. Neither Alex nor Mulder shared the
communal meals with the rest, so Josh only ever really got to say hi to Alex
whenever he was in either the hallways or the gardens.
Alex was amazed by Mulder's patience for the situation. Were the tables
turned, and it was Mulder that Josh had the crush on, he would have set the
younger man straight long ago. He leaned over and whispered softly near
Josh's ear, "Why are you pushing his buttons? Today is not a good day to be
doing that." He winked at Mulder as he spoke.
"Samantha Mulder and I still have them in us, we can't remove them or our
health will fail."
The chip was passed back to her and she put it on top of her file folder,
changed the page on the projector and then continued.
"Now, Mulder and Krycek are a different story. Their blood type is the
same, both of them are in the B+ blood group. But the composition of their
blood has been completely changed. Both men were infected by the black oil
before the release of the virus. Mulder was given the first, almost the
prototype if you will, inoculation for the oil, while Krycek was not. But
both blood samples are virtually identical under the microscope." She
looked to Alex for an explanation.
So Mulder had reluctantly let the topic drop. And regretting his promise
for the nth time, he never reached out to either man for the truth of that
time.
If I take the four on the outside out and maybe do the two or three I
encounter on the inside, I won't have a problem. I'm sure I can slip in and
out, undetected. As for Skyland Mountain, well I'll think of a way to get
in when the time comes. And like the rebel ship, there won't be many greys
on board, just a small complement to protect the gestating babies. The
greys tend to have big ego's, they think they're smarter than us. That's
their Achilles heal. What better way to strike them than to kill their
offspring?" Alex reasoned.
7:00 a.m.
Alex, who had been looking back at Josh could tell that in those fleeting
seconds of inner fantasy that younger man was thinking about the two of them
together. So he was not all that shocked when Josh kissed him. Alex
allowed it however and Josh, finally coming to his senses pulled away
embarrassed by his actions.
He straightened up and made himself a promise, no more flirting and no more
stolen kisses. He would show Alex that he could honor him and their
friendship.
"Friends it is then." Josh was still smiling on the outside, but on the
inside he was devastated. However, he could not let Alex know that.
Skinner put them in an outside flap on Davis' knapsack. "I take it Josh
showed you his new invention?"
"Three needles per ship should do the trick nicely. If possible take notes.
We need to know what went right and wrong with the vaccine." She was
speaking to Alex but looking over at Bill Davis. She couldn't quite bring
herself to meet Alex eyes, knowing what she did about him and Mulder.
At the last second she put a small palm sized cam corder into Alex's hand
and said, "Use this to record if it's possible." Then to Davis she handed
two spare tapes for them to film on, each no bigger that a miniature
chocolate bar.
While Alex pushed the eye up to the retinal scanner Davis pressed the
finger to the key pad. Both functions had to be done simultaneously in
order for the doors to unlock. The alien ship identified then
acknowledged the print and eye patterns; the titanium doors made no noise
when they slid open.
He made sure to record as much of their equipment and computers as possible,
thinking that the unfamiliar instrument panels and various objects could be
as dangerous as nuclear weapons or as benign as a temperature regulator.
Krycek gave his partner a large, toothy grin. "Well... Seeing as how we
are two days ahead of schedule, I want to take a little side trip and go to
the apartment building where I used to live. It's not too far from here."
Had Samantha known that they were related, Alex doubted that she would have
told him of her abuse. Those were the types of things you generally kept
from your estranged brothers.
Alex thoughts turned from Samantha to Mulder. He was so tired of secrets,
that was why he had told Mulder his whole life story. It had not been easy
for him to say the words, to recall the vivid images that still haunted him
to this day. But he had managed to work up his courage one evening—courage that came from a vodka bottle—and sitting Mulder down late one
night, Alex told him everything.
Alex started from his very first memories of the orphanage and continued
talking right up until he reach the point where Mulder liberated him from
the rebel ship.
"How about we hit the sa..." Davis started to Alex, but before he
could finish the word 'sack' an arrow shot from an unseen crossbow behind
him, sliced right through the older man's throat.
Slumping over he fell off of the log; dead before he even hit the ground.
Shit.
Was all he had time to think before the fast acting anesthetic took over.
They had laid him out on top of a dirty, single mattress that had no box
spring it simply rested on the floor in the corner of the empty, windowless
room. Alex's eyes regained their focus and he surveyed his surroundings
closer. The high vaulted ceiling of the room and the size of it told him
that he was probably being held captive in a Virginia mansion whose owners
had no doubt perished during the outbreak.
Alex pulled his gaze away from the four plain walls and studied each of the
faces before him. He committed them all to is memory, giving each one of
the five a deep scowl. Wiggling around, he situated himself so that he was
sitting up, leaning against the wall. Looking down at his body, Alex was
relieved to see that he still had on his pants, socks and T-shirt and that
only his jacket and boots were missing.
Alex in his panic and anger switched from English to Russian and began
hurling his curses at all of the men in his native tongue.
"Hold his mouth open." Clint instructed J.R which he did by pinching just
underneath Alex's cheekbones, forcing his jaw open. The leader dropped the
tiny pills into the back of Alex's throat and the tablets began to dissolve
the second that they came in contact with his saliva. Clint chased the
pills down by squirting some water from the bottle into Alex's wide open
mouth.
Clint pushed Alex's grey boxers further down his well-muscled thighs and
squeezed a liberal dollop at his small entrance. Before entering Alex,
Clint donned a condom, he had no wish to make his cock burn and ache.
As Harley hovered over him, all Alex could think of was finding a way to
add to the broken nose that he had already bestowed upon the man. Suddenly,
his arms began to feel light, like they were floating, and Alex knew that
soon the drugs he had been forced to swallow would incapacitate him. Then
he would not be able to strike back at them at all; leaving him at their
mercy for the next couple of hours. Alex figured he had better get his
licks in now.
Completely naked, he climbed back onto the mattress and straddled Alex's
waist. "I bet you expect me to lean down and kiss you right now." He said,
mockingly.
"In another few minutes you'll be totally agreeable to what I want any
ways. So I think I'll just wait a spell and explore your safer parts
first." He moved down Alex's cold body and took the Russians flaccid penis
into his mouth.
Alex, because he had been knocked out, didn't know how long he had been held
captive, but he hoped that Fox sake, that he would not come looking
for him. He couldn't bear for this to happen to his love. After the
orgasm, Alex's body lost all motor control and he went limp.
"Doll eyes... to match the doll's face." He half whispered. In a
normal tone he said to Alex, "You've had your fun, now it's time for me to
have mine." He rubbed Alex's cold semen over his cock. "Keep lookin' at
me." He ordered when Alex tried to shut his eyes again.
"You hurt me bad pretty man. I don't like that." Harley shuffled his body
so he was between Alex's legs, he pushed Alex's thighs up and back, "Pay
back's a bitch aint' it?" He said then he thrust himself into the already
lubricated opening.
"You Mr...." J.R. husked, "...have a pretty mouth. Though your
technique could use some work..."
J.R laughed at his own joke.
"How do I taste?" He asked, wiping up Alex with the wet face cloth. J.R
wiped most of his spunk off of Alex's face; only missing a few stray drops
in the hairline and over the chest.
J.R. sat on the mattress beside Alex and said as he pulled on his jeans, "I
think you've done that before." He patted Alex's flat abdomen. "Don't
worry your secrets' safe with me." Standing up, J.R buttoned his fly.
The room was cold and Alex's pallor had turned to a ghostly white, his body
started to shiver slightly, trying to warm itself up.
"Cold?" J.R asked. "Don't' worry, Skeeter'll warm you up."
Especially men who were beautiful and beautifully built, like Alex was.
The older man's long lean lines were appealing, even under his clothing.
After that, Skeeter masturbated himself ready, which didn't take long
considering he was studying Alex's form while he did it. He lay down on
top of Alex and very slowly, very lovingly, using a condom made love to the
man below him.
The time was late, satisfied that Alex would not wake up, Skeeter pulled
the scratchy coverings tight up under Alex's stubbled chin and shut the
lantern out.
The Hoover Building.
When he failed to appear as promised, Mulder immediately got a bad feeling.
Alex had promised to return on time, and Mulder knew that something had to
have gone wrong in order for Alex not to keep his word.
He reached out for his lover several times and though he sensed that Alex
was alive, Mulder could not tell much else; like his condition or his
location.
Tragically, when Mulder had reached out to see if Bill Davis might not be
easier to read, he could not feel anything at all. A shudder passed over
him and he knew that the experienced agent was no longer alive.
"What is it Josh?" Mulder asked again, his voice trying for neutrality.
The Surface
They had decided to bring the sled because they still didn't know what
condition they would find Alex in. Mulder was still having difficulty
getting an accurate bead on Alex and his whereabouts. The only thing that he
for sure was that his lover was still alive.
Frohicke escorted the two men to the main doors and locked it behind them
when they walked out. No the former agents were sitting aloft of the snow
mobiles outside of the Hoover building gearing up to go.
The Mansion
But somewhere along the way, over the span of the last few days, Harley had
started to feel something for Alex. It had happened during the intentional
addicting of Alex to the drugs; he was the one who had been elected to
administer them to Alex around the clock.
Neither man could even guess as to why the duo would have strayed so far
from the original plan. Once at the campsite, the two former agents found
Bill Davis in the shallow grave; it had been disinterred by coyotes.
"I got em'." He said to Mulder evenly, meaning that he would watch the
residents of the mansion.
Between the drugs, rem sleep deprivation mixed in with the lack of food and
water, the effects of how he had been existing the last five days had
finally taken their toll.
The wind had picked up even more while Josh and Mulder were inside the
mansion and the snow blew by so fast that it stung Mulder's cheeks when the
delicate flakes hit him. He hurried to his transportation, relieved that
they had thought to move all of the supplies over to the back of Josh's
snowmobile before getting Alex. He propped Alex up in the seat of his
mobile and pushed the piled up snow off of the sled.
Once done, he picked Alex up again and carefully settled him into the snug
sled.
Mulder secured Alex in then covered him up, from head to toe, with a canvass
tarp. The canvass kept the snow off of the unconscious man yet allowed him
to breathe freely.
He thought, What if someone else, an innocent civilian crosses these
bastards paths? Who would rescue them?
Stripping Alex right to his freezing cold skin, Mulder gave his lover a
hasty exam, determining that though he was cut and bruised there wasn't
really too much bodily damage.
Mulder grimaced when he saw a small red spot in Alex's shorts, but even in
that, there wasn't really anything he could for him, except to make sure
that he was not bleeding profusely. Which he wasn't.
He tried to rouse Alex while he had been examining him, but the Russian
would not come fully awake, which really worried Mulder.
After looking him over, Mulder pushed Alex into the middle of the large bed
and tucked the thick, king-sized down quilt underneath the sleeping man's
chin. Remembering what he should do in case of shock, Mulder put a pillow
under both Alex's head and feet.
Especially when taking into consideration that Alex was completely out of it
and the only reason he was in bed with the man in the first place was to
warm him up. Josh sighed heavily, and shut his eyes, damning his cock to
hell.
He steeled his resolve and said to Josh, "Okay, we leave tomorrow, first
light, no matter what the conditions. Deal?"
Late Evening
He might have a hard time getting the cocain out of his system and he will
feel some discomfort from the withdrawal once he's home. But Krycek is
strong, he'll overcome the physical wounds... Um... " Scully
hesitated.
"What is it?" Mulder asked.
As soon as she had seen Alex upon his return, she was glad that she had come
to that decision. Because one look at the former triple agent told her
that despite all that he had done in the past, no one deserved the kind of
abuse that he had been subjected too in the last week.
She smiled softly and dropped her hand. Chewing on her bottom lip, Scully
contemplated for a second then said, "I have something else to tell you."
Two Weeks Later
In the beginning, Fox worried that it was too soon for intercourse but Alex
took the initiative; and Mulder instead. It wasn't often that Mulder was on
the bottom, but Alex, needing to be in control, pleasured Mulder and himself
slowly, needing to feel the love again.
It had been Alex who had brought Mulder and his sister together. Once
again though it was Alex who had sacrificed himself by insisting that Mulder
not acknowledge Alex's real kinship to her.
And Alex was adamant that the secret be kept, even going so far as to go to
Scully in person to swear her to secrecy.
Due to his successful mission, and despite the death of Davis, Alex had
been accepted by all the others of the small group, and even to a certain
extent, by Scully.
